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BOOK OF 

MEDITATIONS 

BY 

WILLIAM MORE DECKER, M. D. 
EMBRACING 

THE GREATER 
AND THE LESSER JOURNEY 

THE OTHER WORLD 

MINOR TOPICS 

INTERSPERSED 

WITH ORIGINAL THOUGHTS 

TERSELY EXPRESSED 

AND 
POEMS 



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COPYRIGHT 1920 

By 

William More Decker, M. D. 



SEP 1 3 1920 
©CI.A576350 



1 
2 



THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, NOT TO THE 
CLASSES, NOR THE MASSES, NOT TO ANY 
NEAR AND DEAR ANCESTOR, OR FRIEND, OR 

TO ANY FAMOUS PERSONAGE; BUT TO ALL 

THOSE WHO READ IT AND ARE 

BENEFITED THEREBY. 



Introduction. 

In the spring of 1919, while at Clifton 
Springs Sanitorium recovering from de- 
bility following the flu, I began to jot down 
some terse thoughts, that came to me 
unbidden and unsought; and which im- 
pressed me as condensed truth, too good 
to let go. I made no study of this kind of 
composition, that now and then, flitted 
through my mind like birds in the forest, 
that did not stop to sing, but only as a brief 
revelation; and I made note of what came, 
for I knew it would never come in quite 
that form again; and, if I did not get it 
while on the wing, I would not get it at all. 

I returned home early in June, much 
improved in health, but not yet strong 
enough to engage in business; and I spent 
the summer at Rushing Waters, my coun- 
try home (one of the sweetest spots on 
earth in the green months) near East 
Aurora, N. Y. ; and continued to jot down 
my spontaneous and unusual thoughts, 
which were akin to maxims, or proverbs. 
I did not plan to write a book. I was not 
strong enough to undertake it, to keep up 
a sustained mental effort, and publicity did 
not occur to me then. In the fall I re- 
turned to my home at Buffalo, the Queen 

l 



City of New York State, and began to fre- 
quent my office and engage moderately in 
business, after being side-tracked for three 
quarters of a year. 

We learn something from sickness. If 
sickness is not profitable to a man, who re- 
gains his health, there is something wrong 
with the man. 

Shortly after I began to participate in 
business again, a friend of mine from New 
York City called to see me. He is a rare 
character, unlike the average man, and al- 
ways interesting. He stands just over the 
fence, that encloses the typical type of 
men, where the fields are green and the 
pastures fresh. He dares to be himself, 
but he is nice about it. He came on busi- 
ness, and he puts soul into business, — is 
not narrow, stingy nor sordid; and he is 
broader than the commercial tract and the 
systematic forces, that operate its wheels 
and direct its human power. Well, social 
life is sandwiched with business between 
the lulls, when this man comes to see me; 
and I absorb much from him, but what I 
give in return, that is worth while, I am in 
doubt about. 

I learned from my visitor how Theo- 
dore F. Merseles, now Vice-President and 

2 



General Manager of a large commercial 
company, built up that business by apply- 
ing the Boy Scout resolution to commer- 
cial promotion. Mr. Merseles resolved, 
that he would evolve, discover, create, or 
gather each day some new, or useful idea, 
that would improve, benefit and promote 
the business; and that he would undertake 
to do one good deed for the business each 
day; and, if he failed one day, he would 
make up by doing two good deeds the next 
day. A splendid resolution! But only a 
genius could do that; only a man with un- 
usual vision, resolution and purpose would 
be equal to the task. I am not acquainted 
with Mr. Merseles; but I take off my hat 
to him, and know he is a great man, for he 
has accomplished much; but, if he should 
ever make a confession, I believe he would 
say, that he was not always productive of 
the good idea each day, or, going blank 
one day, always delivered two good ideas 
the next day, and kept it up each business 
' week, for the entire year, except when sick, 
absent from home, or on a vacation. It 
matters not, it was a great idea, bravely 
and nobly followed and wonderfully pro- 
ductive. Successful men, men who do 

3 



things, are different; and, when compared 
with the conventional men, eccentric. 
Variation, of the right sort in men, spells 
progress. 

What Mr. Merseles did was a fruitful 
suggestion for me. I decided to adopt the 
plan, only apply it to my form of litera- 
ture; and so the Boy Scouts not only lay 
the foundation for better manhood in 
themselves, but furnish that which makes 
men great, who are not scouts, but who 
adopt their ethical principles and apply 
them in every day life in various lines of 
pursuits such as business, science, litera- 
ture, etc. 

But I could not keep the speed that Mr. 
Merseles set. His speed is the high water 
mark of energy; and few men can endure 
the effort and the steady drive; and, if they 
could endure, how about their resourceful- 
ness? If that fails, if they lack diversity 
and creative genius, the physical endur- 
ance is nothing, for we are not now con- 
sidering a pugilistic contest, or a cross 
country run. Furthermore, when you 
forage for original, brief expressions of a 
high order, embodying more or less truth, 
they come not. You may find your brain a 

4 



desert, with only now and then a fertile 
spot in it ; and so it was that I did not pro- 
duce this sort of literature rapidly. Some- 
times the gems of thought would come in 
detached and unlike clusters, in the dark, 
still and pulseless night, after slumber had 
given the soul its freedom and the mind 
and body rest. Then, you can think, if you 
ever can; and, when the spell is on, the 
body is lost sight of and the mind almost 
seems like a disembodied, spiritual thing 
by itself. 

About the time I began to undertake 
to evolve, each day, one or more bits of 
good thought and record the same, I de- 
cided to get enough of this promiscuous 
composition together to compile a book; 
but, as I proceeded, I changed my form of 
composition considerably, expanding some 
thoughts more fully than others; and, 
now and then, a topic grew to be an es- 
say, still clinging, however, to the terse 
bits of thought, widely differing in char- 
acter and not coupled with anything else ; 
and these are interspersed in the compila- 
tion, to relieve the plan and break up the 
set pattern and conventional design of 
most books. I, also, allowed more trivial 
composition to appear, here and there, for 

5 



diversity; and "to break the gait of the 
regular tread"; and produce a smile or 
frown, as the reader plays his part. 

The poetry in this book, not in quota- 
tion, is my own. The poems with a title 
were written before the conception of this 
book except three — Love is Supreme; 
Mother of Mine; and Men Are Measured 
by Their Vision. 

I did not start out to write a book. It 
came by evolution, as above described; and 
I have named it — Book of Meditations 
with subheadings. 

I trust those who read this work will 
find in it some cheer and comfort, some 
truth and vision, that will abide with and 
benefit them. 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



Nature takes back all she gives. 



We are all alike, yet all different. 



3 More than half of life is gone before 
we know how to use it, and some persons 
never know. 

4 Put your soul into your business — if 
vou have a soul. 

5 Man is the only life that worries, or is 
concerned about the hereafter. 



We get what we give. 



7 Don't worry — you cannot change the plans. 

They're God's. You might, if they were man's. 



8 Oblivion is an awful thing — much 

dreaded; and yet we go there every night, 
when we sleep soundly. 



9 The mind is for our good, and yet it 

may do us much ill. 



10 "He, that ruleth his spirit" — his mind, 

"is greater than he, that taketh a city." 



11 It's a great thing to be a great physi- 

cian. The greatest physicians are the 

7 



12 

13 

14 

15 
16 



17 



18 



19 



20 



great rural physicians. Ihe great city 
physicians are specialists. 

Look at each day as an opportunity, 
that only comes once. 

Death is like going to sleep and never 
waking up, if there is no hereafter. 

Religion does not do so much for you, 
you have got to do most of it yourself. 

Doubting, you empty your heart — get nowhere. 
Trusting, you're strong, go forward — no despair. 

Is there anything that lives, that doesn't 
live on what is living, or has lived? (The 
Vegetable Kingdom regarded as life.) 

Man is an instinct animal; but may 
acquire some intelligence. 

Sympathy is good medicine. We 
should use more of it. 



Every normal, human life is stamped, 
at creation, with a fixed type of individu- 
ality, which governs that life, more or less 
completely. 

Reproduction saves the world. 



21 Death is life's penalty, or conversely — 

the penalty of life is death. 

8 



22 All there is to Nature is life and death. 



23 All there is to revelation is Nature. 

Man is a part of Nature; and the chief 
part of revelation. 



24 If there was no man, there would be no 

God, for man is the only animal that has 
sufficient intelligence to consider God, 
hence, God is dependent on man. 



25 Religion is a poetic vision. 



26 I have tried to study Nature, and "look 

through Nature up to Nature's God;" and 
that is the only God I know, as I am a part 
of Nature. 



27 Variation makes evolution possible. 



28 It's action, not thoughts — it's what you 

do, more than what you think, that makes 
you great, or small, wise or foolish. 



29 The past is fixed like a statue in marble 

— it changes not; but the future is plastic 
and can be shaped more or less — make it 
more. 

The past cannot be recalled. It's gone 
for ever; but the future looms big with 
possibilities, especially for the young. 

9 



30 When on the high tide of prosperity, 

friends are with you. When the tide turns, 
friends turn. 



31 The main question is not how much 

pay; but how well I can do my work. Pay 
follows service. 



32 We only have one chance at life. Life 

is nearly gone before some of us realize 
that fact. 



33 What was I created for? If different 

from other men, thank God, if the differ- 
ence is in the right direction. 



34 What does education do for a man? 

Much, too much to mention now, but this 
we may say — education makes man more 
efficient and takes him out of the class of 
common labor. 



35 God can not be defined, nor fully 

known; but the All Knowing, All Wise 
God must be an intelligent revelation, 
must be that intelligence, which is being 
progressively revealed in Nature and in 
man. Progressive evolution in Nature re- 
veals God, and progressive evolution of 
mind reveals Him more. 

10 



36 Of all created life, man is the most like 
God, because he is the most intelligent. Is 
mind independent of matter? God seems 
to be independent of matter, and capable 
of existence apart from matter; yet, it is 
only through matter, the tangible, that He 
is known to man, that He reveals himself; 
and, unless he is revealed, He is as nothing 
— unless he acts through mankind, he is as 
nothing. 

37 Fortune favors the brave and those 
who do things. 

38 Man either takes his religion ready- 
made, recites the creed like a parrot, or is 
the author of his own religion. 



39 The mouth-piece of God is man. Man 

is God's interpreter. Why, therefore, 
exalt God and belittle man? 



40 From birth we begin the journey to 
"that undiscovered country'' from which 
we never return, yet that fact does not im- 
press us deeply, until we face death and 
the grave. 

41 Successful business demands health, 
clear head and capital. 

ll 



42 In business there must be a blossom 

before there can be fruit. 



Life. 43 Life appears in many and various styles 

and forms. 

Life is spectacular, dramatic, many- 
sided, reproductive. 

The law of life is reproduction. That 
is the nature and trend of life. Now and 
then, life is baffled and prevented, or is in- 
capable of reproduction; but there is no 
type of life, that continues, which is not 
reproductive. Generations come and go, 
hence all there is to nature, broadly speak- 
ing, is life and death — the organic and the 
inorganic, if we leave out the soul. 



44 It masters not how far your crawl, it's 

how and where you come out. 



45 If you want to give a fashionable 

woman a nervous shock, show her an un- 
paid dressmaker's bill. 



46 Decision is the test of judgment. 

Indecision is fatal to business. 



47 Creative actors and original doers are 

the people that make history. 

12 



Money. 48 How far can you go without money? 

We need money at every turn, at every 
step, in business and out of business — 
everywhere. Before you act, count the 
cost, and again count the cost. Economy 
is the highest type of science nowdays. 

49 If you wish to make headway in busi- 
ness and become popular in the commu- 
nity, don't threaten, don't antagonize, they 
beget opposition, war, enemies and illwill; 
but don't submerge your faith and opin- 
ions — your individuality. Be a brave, 
strong man, when occasion requires. 

50 The Jew is a Jew all the way through. 
He is true to type because he is a thor- 
oughbred. 

Mind. 51 If we touch God at all, it is a mental 

touch. If God is mind, then we are all 
petty-gods, when right minded. 

Mind seems cold, but it is not, 
For it embraces all we've got — 
Spirit, soul, heart, 
Each mental part. 

The dogs may bark, the serpents hiss ; 
But man, alone, gives God love's kiss. 



52 What is prayer, but faith? We do not 

pray for what we have. We pray for what 

13 



we hope to get; and what is hope, but 
faith? How words chase words and 
thoughts go in circles ! We expand 
thought in waves, which move like cir- 
cular riplets, from a pebble dropped into 
placid water, and they go on until they 
break against the shore. Thought has an 
irregular coast line, beyond which reason 
can not go. The trouble is our thought- 
circles soon hit the short, as they start 
not far out. 



53 A good thought is only effectual when 

put into action. 

A business idea is no good, if not used. 

Many a thought flits through the brain, 
That never comes to life again. 



54 Boys struggle to lift themselves by 

their boot-straps; but, if a man undertook 
to do that thing, he would be a fool. 



Up-lift. 55 Up-lift is rising above the common 

things of earth, into that cool and clear 
atmosphere of exalted vision. If you have 
never had an up-lift, your soul is heavy — 



it has no wings. 



14 



Persistency. 
56 



Finance. 



57 



Persistency is holding on and keeping 
at a thing until you put it over; and tact 
will change the attack, until success it at- 
tained. 

Finance is a doleful tale, if statistics are 
correct; and yet, finance is easy. Save 
more than you spend and your wealth 
grows. Make safe investments with what 
you accumulate. Reduce hazard to small 
proportions. Guard against chance and 
risk — they mislead. Don't go on the hit- 
and-miss plan, it seldom wins. Yes, 
finance is easy, if you can play the game 
and do it well; and there is the rub. It 
takes experience, wise judgment, shrewd- 
ness and efficiency, also courage, to make 
a good financier. Few men possess all 
these qualities. Self-denial enters largely 
into the foundation of wealth, when in- 
comes are small, and monopoly and vol- 
ume are potent in big business. 

"Little drops of water, little grains of sand, 
Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land." 
Little bits of honey, made by many bees, 
Little bits of seeds, from the many sheaves, 
That's the way of finance, that's the way to grow, 
That's the truth from nature, practice, then you'll 
know. 

When everybody gives, it is easy to 

support a church, if the membership is 

large. When everybody buys your prod- 

15 



uct, business is good, and though the profit 
on a single article is small, the gains will 
be great, if the volume is large. 

Finance is easy, yet only one man, out 
of many, makes good. It is easier to spend 
than to save — easier to make than to invest 
safely. New business and gold mines al- 
lure us. Promoters paint prospects rosy. 
The stock market tempts us and there are 
inducements everywhere, for men to get 
rich quick. In the face of all this, happy 
the man, who avoids failure. 

Remember, that a bird in the hand is 
better than one in the bush; and remember, 
also, that the hand-bird was once a bush- 
bird and somebody went out to hunt, made 
the struggle, braved the difficulties and 
bagged the bird. Pioneers in business are 
the men, who get the bush-bird; and they 
are the fearless, daring, creators of new 
business. Progress and variation in busi- 
ness begin with them; but they often fail 
to see it through. They start business ; but 
do not finish it. They have a view of the 
promised land, but do not always get 
there. They have the lure of vision. There 
must be business pioneers; but those, who 
come after, usually gather the harvest. 

16 



Shave or When a man's face feels like a piece of 

be Like sandpaper, he says to himself — Why did 

a Goat. the Lord make me like a goat? Some men 

58 never shave, and others shave daily. It is 
better to shave than to be shaved — de- 
frauded. A man, who shaves every day 
and lives ninety years, I wonder how much 
hair, in linear feet, he would lose? Enough 
to make a rope by which to hang himself 
and a thousand feet more — not to be exact. 
"Every little bit makes just a little bit 
more;" and years of this sort of accumula- 
tion finally tell surprisingly. 

Hair out-lasts bones. Hair beats all 
other physical growth of mankind in per- 
petuity — unless the body becomes petri- 
fied, or mummified, then, shall we say, it is 
everlasting, because it is preserved, trans- 
formed, or substituted. In speaking of 
hair, I was speaking of the real thing, not 
of a transformation, or substitution, or 
something canned. Hair lasts longer, un- 
changed, than any other part of the body. 

Laugh and Every time we laugh we show our 

Show Your skeleton, that is, if we have teeth. What 
Skeleton. a sad paradox ! Teeth are the only part of 

59 the human skeleton exposed. It would be 
different, if we were an elephant, or a bird. 
The tusks and the bill are exposed without 

17 



a laugh, they are always in evidence, as 
part of the skeleton to which they are at- 
tached. Keep your skeleton clean, then 
smile. 



60 



The line between right and wrong, 
Is not always clearly drawn. 



Fashion. Fashion is a tyrant in disguise, a trick 

61 of the trade, yet the people fall in line and 
pay the price. 

62 A line may stop, but a circle is without 
end. 



63 



Mechanical construction is complex, 
but, fundamentally, it is only a circle and a 
line. 



The 

Greater 
and the 
Lesser 
Journey. 



64 



Most people like to travel. They take 
trips, return home and talk about it; but 
there are many, yes, thousands of people, 
who have never crossed the ocean, never 
been far from home, but spend their days, 
so to speak, in their own door-yard, in the 
town where they were born. Surprising 
as it may seem however, the whole human 
race is constantly traveling, day and night, 
year in and year out, though they are not 
conscious of the fact. All life is on the go, 
the hermit in his isolated lodge, patients 

18 



on beds of sickness, the prisoner in his cell, 
the stay-at-homes, the rich and the poor, 
whether they sleep, or wake, wherever 
they may be — all are incessantly traveling 
at a high rate of speed, more than 1041 
miles per hour, if residing in the tropics; 
and at a somewhat less rate of speed, if 
living in the north, or south temperate 
zones, that is, if the theory of the solar 
system is correct. 

At the equator the earth is 25,000 miles 
in circumference, and our globe makes one 
complete revolution every 24 hours, or in 
one full day. Hence, all life on the earth is 
traveling constantly, going round and 
round without stopping; and, in one year, 
we travel 365 times 25,000 miles, which is 
9,125,000 miles, if we reckon the greatest 
distance around the earth. We travel less 
as we go toward the poles. At the poles 
of the earth, we would go round and round 
like a top spinning on one point of contact, 
which does not vary, except with the oscil- 
lations of the earth. The people at the 
tropics go round the earth 365 times in one 
year. In a lifetime of, say B0 years, if spent 
in the torrid zone, we would travel 730 
million miles. Of course, it does not seem 
possible. 

19 



We think in circles, we travel in circles, 
and even the vines, with a spiral climb, 
have got the habit of climbing round and 
round, from right to left, as that is the way 
the earth goes round. 

The revolution of the earth explains, in 
part, the tides, also, the rising and the set- 
ting sun, which, correctly speaking, does 
not rise and set, for it is fixed in its own 
orbit, 95,000,000 miles from the earth; and 
its location is not so changed, but that its 
rays and warmth play upon the earth at all 
times, in varying degrees, according to the 
ever varying location of the earth. 

The rotation of the earth brings dawn 
and darkness, brings the sun in view, for a 
time, and then it goes out of sight, for only 
one-half of the earth receives the light, 
while the other half is turned away from 
it, so rest and sleep, wakefulness and ac- 
tivity correspond to these regular, alter- 
nate changes, more or less completely. 

The stay-at-homes are wonderful trav- 
elers, the world over, if they only knew it ; 
but what we have said about travel, thus 
far, is only a small part of the actual travel, 
that all life on earth does. Over and above 
all that has been mentioned, we go 17.806+ 
miles per second in another direction, day 

20 



in and day out, as long as we live; and 
after death, our bodies keep up the same 
rate of speed. At 17.806 miles per second 
we go 1,068.376 miles per minute, which is 
64,102.564 miles per hour, 1,538,461.538 
miles per day, and per year, 560,000,000 
miles, which distance the earth travels in 
its yearly orbit about the sun. 

Don't complain about not traveling! 
You are traveling all the time and takingall 
your baggage and your environment with 
you. It's a free ride. It does not cost you 
a cent. You travel vast distances, millions 
of miles, and because you take your house, 
your home companions, your village, or 
city with you, the scenery does not change. 
It is not a sight-seeing trip, but a merry- 
go-round on a stupendous scale, and what 
you ride, returns with you, unless you shift 
your starting point, or travel, more or less, 
on your own account, at your own expense, 
independent of what the solar system is 
doing for you. But when you go on a 
journey, for your-self, at your own ex- 
pense, you are constantly taking the other 
journey also. You simply have got to 
take the mileage stated. There is no es- 
cape. Dead or alive, you take it. 

21 



Travel, God only knows we travel be- 
yond all human understanding. Scientific 
philosophers and astronomers are author- 
ity on the natural travel of our earth and 
we go with it; but, oh man, How great is 
thy faith? Let us see. What is the total 
mileage we make traveling in the natural 
way? The daily trip around the earth, 
which we will call the Lesser Journey, is 
25,000 miles in 24 hours, which is at the 
rate of 17.361 miles per minute. The mile- 
age made in a day, by the earth in its orbit 
about the sun, which we will call the 
Greater Journey, is 1,538,461.538 miles, 
which is at the rate of 1,068.376 miles per 
minute. Our total mileage per minute, em- 
bracing the rotary whirl of the earth and 
the orbital trip, is 1,085.737 miles per min- 
ute; or per day our total is 1,563,461.538 
miles. The big orbital trip is over six 
times greater and faster, than the round- 
and-round whirl of the earth, and that is 
25,000 miles per day, speaking in round 
numbers. 

Who believes, that we travel 1,563,461 
miles plus, per day, and every day in the 
year? In a lifetime of 75 years, at the 
above rate, our total mileage, not to men- 
tion any side trip on our own account, 

22 



would be 42,799,759,383.75 miles. Do you 
believe it? Figures do not lie, if scientific 
scholars are correct in what they give us. 
No wonder, at seventy-five years of life, 
we begin to age and get weary. 

We think we make good mileage when 
we drive our automobile at forty, or fifty 
miles per hour; and, if we board a train, 
that makes 100 miles per hour, that is as 
fast, as the most of use care to travel. We 
call such a train a "flyer." All we can 
count, as we go between one telegraph 
pole and the next, at the ordinary rate of 
counting, is four. If there was a continu- 
ous railroad track going about the earth 
at the equator, and we boarded a train, that 
kept up a constant speed of a hundred 
miles per hour, day and night, without 
stopping, it would take us 10.416/1000 
days, that is, nearly 10% days, to complete 
the journey round the earth, as our speed is 
only 2,400 miles per day of 24 hours. That 
is over 10 times slower than the daily trip, 
which is taken by us in the natural way, 
and we don't know, that we are speeding, 
we don't know, that we are going. Strange, 
is it not? 

If we drive our automobiles thirty, or 
forty miles per hour, we create quite a 

23 



breeze going against the air, but going 
against the air, as we stand on the crust, 
or surface of the earth, and speed 
1085.737/1000 miles per minute, we are 
not so much as fanned by a gentle zephyr. 
Wind, that attains the velocity of sixty, or 
more miles per minute, is termed a hurri- 
cane, and such aerial force is destructive 
to life and property; but the speed of the 
earth is many times more rapid and power- 
ful, yet we experience no blow, or resis- 
tance from the air. How great is thy 
faith? 

The air envelops the earth, and either 
travels along with the earth, as it speeds 
through space, or the earth in its orbit is 
constantly passing through a continuous 
atmosphere, that changes not in its com- 
position. The atmosphere of the earth is 
more dense at the earth's surface, and be- 
comes more rarified, as the distance in- 
creases from the earth, until, at an altitude 
of six or seven miles, it is so attenuated, 
that life can not continue without prepared 
oxygen, and only then, for a short time. 

The atmosphere of our earth is loosely 
held together. It is not a chemical com- 
position, but a mixture of elements in a 

24 



gassy state in the proportions best adapted 
to life. 

We pass through air easily in walking, 
not conscious of any resistance unless a 
breeze is on, but let us increase our speed 
and we encounter resistance from the air, 
which increases, as the speed increases. 
All the speed, that man creates, is opposed 
by the air about the earth, but great speed 
is possible because the air is so elastic and 
yielding. Why, therefore, should the nat- 
ural speed of the earth, which is vastly 
greater, be an exception, — no resistance 
from the air? To say, that the earth takes 
its atmosphere with it, does not explain, or 
answer the question. 

The Great and the Little Journey. 
The bigger journey sends us forward on 
an orbital trip of 560,000,000 miles, which 
takes one year to complete. The lesser 
journey is being performed at the same 
time in a circular whirl of 25,000 miles per 
day, for 365 days, which is as much whirl- 
ing as is good for our health; and the total 
mileage is the sum of the two. The lesser 
journey amounts to 9,125,000 miles per 
year, that is, at the rate of 25,000 miles per 
day. The greater v journey is 560,000,000 
miles per year. In a lifetime of seventy- 

25 



five years, the total mileage would be 
42,684,375,000 miles. That is going some, 
and yet we know it not. Do you doubt, or 
question the figures? Do you doubt the 
theory of the solar system? 

It is estimated, that 500,000 tons of 
water drop over Niagara Falls every min- 
ute. Hence, in a day of 24 hours, 720,000,- 
000 tons go over the Falls, or 262,800,000 
tons are dropped per year, by this great 
cataract. Vast, as this tonnage is, it is only 
an infinitesimal quantity compared with 
the total water in the oceans of the earth. 
Three-fourths of the earth's surface is 
water, and there are depths in oceans, that 
have never been sounded — too deep to 
fathom. Water is fluid and more dense 
and cohesive than air, but liquid seeks the 
lowest level, hence, water fluctuates, moves 
and is on the go. Now, this stupendous 
bulk of water in all the oceans of the earth 
— the Atlantic and Pacific, the Indian 
Ocean and the Northern and Southern 
Arctic waters, is beyond all estimation, as 
to total weight. It is so enormous, that 
what goes over Niagara Falls, per year, is 
a mere drop in the bucket. Now, the earth 
whirls at the rate of 17.361 miles per min- 
ute; and it shoots ahead on its orbit at the 

26 



rate of 1,068.376 miles per minute; and the 
water clings to the globe and is not thrown 
away from the earth, by the centrifugal 
force, as cream is whirled out of milk by 
a similar force active in a separator; and 
the water does not settle from the north- 
ern hemisphere to the southern section. It 
sways and goes in waves, and is not dis- 
turbed, as much by the speed of the earth, 
as by a big storm at sea; or by the winds, 
that drive and whip up the waters into 
foam and huge waves, mountains high. 

We are led to believe, that the vast ton- 
nage of ocean waters, is kept in place by 
the one force, known as gravity, or gravi- 
tation. Think of what a mighty force 
gravitation must be, to hold the earth's 
tonnage of waters, which is so vast and so 
heavy, that no figures can estimate it; and 
the waters, that drop over Niagara Falls 
for one year (262,800,000,000 tons), are, 
as nothing, compared with the ocean 
waters of the earth. Why ask us to be- 
lieve, what is unbelievable, because incom- 
prehensible? What a strange, mysterious 
and mighty force is gravity, if that is the 
only force, that keeps the great waters of 
the earth in place. 

We know something about magnetism. 
The earth is said to be a great magnet. 

27 



The action of magnetism is pronounced 
on metals and it has influence on the com- 
pass, but this force does not hold the 
waters of the earth in place. We know 
something about electricity. We handle 
and direct it. Electricity is positive and 
negative in its action, and is used for heat 
and light and power; but it does not act 
on all sorts of material. For example, it 
will not act on glass, or rubber, as both 
are non-conductors. Electricity does not 
keep the waters of the earth in place. 

Gravity, — what is it? We do not 
know. It is a force of some kind; we can 
not account for it. Of all forces, gravity 
is by far the most mysterious and the most 
mighty, if it alone holds the vast tonnage 
of ocean waters in place. Does it? 

We are told that three-fourths of the 
earth's surface is water; and all waters be- 
long to and are a part of the earth; but, if 
it were possible to separate all the ocean 
waters from the land, or solid portions of 
the earth, the earth would-not be a sphere, 
but an irregular mass with very deep cav- 
erns, or valleys, cutting into its surface; and 
the size and the weight of the earth would 
be very much reduced. Scientific scholars 
tell us, that the land (solid portion) of the 

28 



earth, has a density more than five times 
that of water, but the weight of the earth 
must be much less than the weight of the 
waters of the earth, because of the exces- 
sive preponderance of water, which is 
known by its surface and not always by its 
depth. 

When oil, or gas wells, begin to empty 
out, and sometimes before this occurs, salt 
water enters those subterranean cavities; 
and where does the salt water come from, 
if not from the ocean? Vast and many 
cavities of the earth are stored with gas, 
or oil, and along with this, let us add, that 
the interior of the earth is in a molten 
state, if scientific information is correct; 
and volcanoes are the vent holes of this 
great interior liquid - fire. Hence, the 
oceans, are the fluid outside of the earth, 
and, the liquid-fire, the fluid on the inside 
of the earth, now the crust of the earth is 
only twenty-five, or fifty miles thick, then, 
without doubt, the most of what consti- 
tutes the earth, as we find it, is in a fluid 
state; and the solid portion, or crust of the 
earth, is a small part of it, as the earth is 
about 8000 miles in diameter. 

Gravity is not in the water about the 
earth, hence, the center of gravity, or more 

29 



correctly speaking, gravitation must be 
centered else-where in the interior of the 
earth. The diameter of the liquid interior 
of the earth, is far greater than the solid, 
or crust portions of the earth. The fluid 
diameter of the earth, taking the fluid 
outside and inside, must constitute about 
seven-eighths of the diameter — if scholars 
state the truth. Do they? Now, if gravi- 
tation is not seated, or centered, in the 
interior fluid portion of the earth, then it 
must be centered in the solid portion, or 
crust of the earth, which is the egg-shell 
portion, if we regard the earth as a mon- 
ster tgg, with plenty of deep water cling- 
ing to its surface, as it whirls in space at 
the rate of 1,041 66/100 miles per hour. 

The law of gravitation is directly as 
the mass, or density, and inversely as the 
square of the distance, hence, its center, 
must be in — what? God only knows. 

The pressure, or gravitation of the air 
at the earth's surface, is fifteen pounds per 
square inch. That is a heavy weight, and 
life on the earth gets that pressure. A 
man on his back, with limbs extended, 
gets this pressure all over the upper sur- 
face of his body; but say we only reckon 

30 



one square foot of pressure on his chest, 
that would be 2160 pounds. Now, a like 
pressure, or weight on his abdomen, 
would be another 2160 pounds, or a total 
weight of 4320 pounds on only two square 
feet of his body, whereas, the total weight 
of air on his entire body would be very 
much greater. Yet he is not uncomfort- 
able; and rises to his feet without con- 
scious resistance and with perfect ease. 
But, if two square feet of his body was 
actually loaded with a weight of 4320 
pounds, how about his life? Would he 
not be crushed? 

Philosophers tell us, that we are not 
made uncomfortable by atmospheric pres- 
sure of fifteen pounds to every square 
inch, because we get it equally on all sides. 
So much the worse, for pressure all around 
is very great on the entire surface of the 
body; but, with only two square feet of 
pressure in front of the body, and a like 
pressure in the rear, we are being pressed 
both ways by 2160pounds. That pressure, 
in a vise, would kill a man; but, in the air, 
it is like the weight of a feather. Do scien- 
tific men tell us the truth? Against a vac- 
uum, the air may press fifteen pounds to 
the square inch, but elsewhere — doubted. 

31 



Take another illustration; a house 
with a flat roof fifty by one hundred feet. 
If every inch of that roof has air-weight of 
fifteen pounds, then the total weight of 
air on that roof is 720,000 pounds, yet the 
architects and builders ignore that weight 
— give it no consideration. Why? Because 
it does not exist. It is false. If it was a 
fact, they would have to deal with.it. 

Again, heated air rises. Does gravita- 
tion let go its grip on heated air? It seems 
so, yet the explanation is, that the cold air, 
being heavier, rushes in to take the place 
of the heated air, and it is forced up, hence 
we get circulation of air. At the equator, 
air ascends; at the arctic regions of the 
earth, air descends. In the temperate zones 
of the earth, during the summer months, 
gravitation's grip on the air is less; and 
during the winter months it is more; and 
so the air is in a constant state of unrest — 
and the winds do blow, as we all know. 

But we are traveling all the time and at 
great speed. The earth goes round, from 
west to east; and, if we start on a journey 
on our own account, we either walk, go 
horseback, or by coach, rail, or boat, the 
trolley line, or the flying machine. The 
last beats the railroad, beats all known 

32 



methods of travel invented by man for 
speed. 

In a recent long distance test of air- 
ships, the flight from Mineola, near New 
York City, to San Francisco and return, 
a distance of 5402 miles, was made in 54 
hours, 1 minute, 36 seconds, which was the 
actual flying time. Half of the round trip 
— 2701 miles, or the distance one way, if 
averaged, required 27 hours, 48 seconds. 
That is great speed, but far short of the 
speed of the earth. The maximum speed 
of the airship was three miles in one min- 
ute, or 180 miles per hour, but the earth, 
in its lesser journey, makes 1041 66/100 
miles per hour, and, in its greater journey, 
the speed is greater. 

We look to the air machine to prove, 
or disprove, the greater and lesser jour- 
neys of the earth. If it be true, that when 
the airplane leaves the surface of the 
earth, it becomes detached from the earth, 
overcomes gravitation and can be driven 
north or south, east or west, independent 
of the motion of the earth, then it should 
be a more, or less, accurate test of the 
earth's motion. For example, in the recent 
transcontinental trip referred to, the jour- 
ney of the flying machine west, counting 

33 



the actual flying time while in the air, 
should have been less than the actual fly- 
ing time on the return trip east, because 
the speed of the earth, on its axis, its lesser 
journey, is from west to east, moving oppo- 
site, or toward, the flying machine going 
west. That is, San Francisco comes to- 
ward the flying machine, and the flying 
machine moves west toward San Francis- 
co; but the actual flying time west was 
more than the actual flying time east. The 
reverse would have been true, if our theo- 
ries are true concerning the daily rotation 
of the earth. And it would, also, have been 
true, that the trip eastward with the flying 
machine would require more time in the 
air than the trip west, as the speed of the 
earth and the speed of the flyer were now 
moving in the same direction; but the facts 
are, that the trip east was made in less time 
than the trip west. How could it happen, 
unless the daily rotation of the earth fa- 
vored the trip of the machine by the rota- 
tion on the last flying day coming round 
in a way to lessen the distance? The fly- 
ers say the winds favored their trip east 
and did not favor their trip west, and that 
made the difference in actual flying time 
west and east. Winds may favor and 

34 



winds oppose the flight of flying machines; 
but, nevertheless, if an air machine when 
flying in the air, is detached from the earth 
and has overcome gravitation, the speed 
west, toward a fixed point on the surface 
of the earth, should be reached in less time 
because, that point is rapidly moving to- 
ward the machine; and, when the fixed 
point and the machine are moving in the 
reverse order, that is, in the same direc- 
tion, the speed of the rotating earth being 
so much greater than the speed of the ma- 
chine, the machine could not keep up with 
the revolving earth; and therefore, the 
machine traveling east would not reach 
any point on the earth's surface east of the 
starting point of the machine, until that 
point, going round with the earth, finally 
overtook the flying machine coming to it 
from the rear. Now, this is what would 
actually take place, if the machine is inde- 
pendent of gravitation and has motion 
and speed of its own; and, if the rotation 
of the earth from west to east has a speed 
of 1041 miles per hour, while the flying 
machine has never been able to sustain a 
speed of more than 190 miles per hour.* 



* Said Lecointe, French Aviator, recently broke the 
world's record with a sustained speed of 190 miles per 
hours. 

35 



Again, if it be true, that the earth is 
speeding from west to east, turning on its 
axis over 17 miles per minute, whirling 
like a huge merry-go-round, then why 
travel with a flying machine westward to 
reach San Francisco? Why not go up in 
the air and wait for a short time, and San 
Francisco will come round; and then the 
machine can drop down on that city when 
its passing. The time necessary to wait 
in the air would be less than 3 hours. If 
the earth goes round, San Francisco goes 
round every 24 hours, that is, completes 
the revolution of the earth's cycle; but, 
facts are not in accord with theory. Who 
has erred? 

Again, if the flying machine is free of 
gravitation while speeding in the air, then, 
when altitude records are made, such as 
was made recently by Major Rudolph 
Schroeder, when he reached an altitude of 
36,130 feet, or 6 84/100 miles plus, at the 
McCook Experimental Field, Dayton, O., 
and broke all previous altitude records — 
the earth going on its greater, or orbital 
journey at 64,102 56/100 miles per hour, 
would have run away from him, and he 
would never have gotten back to tell what 

36 



did happen; but he came back much faster 
than he went up. 

The climb, to that high altitude, took 
Major Schroeder 110 minutes, or 1 5/6 
hours ;* and the earth went forward on its 
greater journey, in that time, 117,520 
miles plus, if it went with the speed we 
are told it goes; and, when he dropped, he 
came down in 2 1/12 minutes; and the 
earth was under him, notwithstanding it 
had gone forward 2226+ miles more dur- 
ing the drop. In other words, if the earth 
actually made 117,520 miles, while Major 
Schroeder was climbing in the air, then, 
that would be his distance from the earth, 
or altitude obtained while in the air with- 
out flying for it; but the altitude actually 
recorded was 6 and 84/100 miles plus. 
How about the greater journey, or was 
the earth taking him along, while he was 
climbing less than 7 miles? Theories and 
facts do not conform. 

The speed of the earth forward on its 
greater journey, as given us, is 1068 
56/100 miles plus per minute; but Major 



* Clarence Coombs made new world record in 
ascent climbing 6000 feet in 8 minutes with 3 passengers 
at Hazelhurst Field, Long Island, N. Y., early part of 
May, 1920. The record was on the speed of ascent, 
not on the altitude; and the speed averaged 750/5250, or 
1/7 of a mile per minute. 

37 



Schroeder, by shutting off his engine at 
the high point in his climb, dropped 6 
84/100 miles plus, in two minutes and five 
seconds, and came back to earth. The 
rapid drop to earth was the speed of grav- 
ity in his case. Now, that speed must be 
equal to, or greater than the speed of the 
earth, in order to keep up with it and land 
on earth. The facts are, however, that the 
speed of the drop was far short of the 
speed of the earth. To prove it, say that 
the Major dropped 7 miles in 2 minutes. 
That would be a drop of Zy 2 miles per min- 
ute, but the earth in one minute goes for- 
ward 1068 miles plus, hence the speed of 
gravity is exceedingly slow, compared to 
the speed of the earth on its greater jour- 
ney, and the wonder is how altitude flyers 
ever get back. The speed of gravity in 
Major Schroeder's case is a fact; but the 
speed of the earth, as given, is that a fact? 

Had Major Schroeder's machine been 
a feather; and had the Major been as 
small as a flea, he would still be in the 
air, going where, oh where? For the speed 
of gravity earthward (that's the only way 
it acts, and the only force, that brings 
down what goes up), in the case of a 
feather, would be weak and slow; but the 

38 



scientific world must hereafter consider 
and deal with the speed of gravitation, 
when that speed is known and becomes a 
fact, varying with the weight of the ma- 
chine and distance from the earth, of 
course. 

Gravity was in his favor coming back; 
but he overcame gravity, as long as he 
directed his machine upward. When once 
on this earth, the conditions are such, and 
the law of gravitation is such, that there 
is no known way of leaving it, dead or 
alive, hence, altitude flyers come back; 
but while they can not get beyond the 
reach of gravity, that does not prove, that 
the air machine does not overcome gravi- 
tation, when it rises from the earth's sur- 
face, otherwise, it could not rise; and grav- 
itation does not prevent the machine mov- 
ing, more or less, indepedent of the earth. 
The atmosphere is confined to the earth; 
and the machine is confined to the atmos- 
phere; but it has freedom, force and di- 
rection, in its confinement; and moves 
freely through the air and is not carried 
forward, or whirled, while in the air, as 
fast as the earth speeds forward on its 
orbit, or is whirled on its axis, hence, fly- 
ers are either carried along with the earth 

39 



on its rapid journey forward, or the earth 
does not make the great journey. If that 
is not true, then the machine is not de- 
tached from the earth, when in the air; 
and has no freedom of its own. What is 
the truth? 

Furthermore, if the earth rotates on 
its axis 1041 miles per hour plus; and a 
flying machine is free of the earth while 
moving in the air, how did it happen, that 
Major Schroeder came down 40 miles east 
of where he went up? The wind did it; 
but you would expect him to come down 
in Chicago, Denver, the Rocky Mountains, 
or somewhere considerably west of the 
point where he went up, wind, or no wind, 
for the earth is turning eastward rapidly, 
according to the best scientific informa- 
tion given us. Now, what is the trouble 
with all these facts, they don't agree? 
When a flying machine is in the air, it's 
either independent of the earth, or it is 
not. If not, then it whirls with the earth 
while in the air, the same as it goes with 
the earth while on the ground; and, in that 
case, if up at a high altitude, would come 
down again about where it started from, 
unless directed and driven away from that 
point; but, if it can be directed and driven 

40 



one way, or another from the starting 
point on the earth, it is independent of the 
earth; and the earth, making its speed one 
way and the machine making its speed the 
other way, or going the same way, then, 
those records should not be contradictory, 
but they are. Facts and theory disagree. 

It's time the philosophers, and scien- 
tific men got busy once more and explain 
away contradictions and establish the 
truth. Will the flying machine help us any 
in solving these problems? If not, why 
not? 

When a flying machine mounts up into 
the air, say at Buffalo, N. Y., and is de- 
tached from the earth's surface and over- 
comes the inertia, which it had at the time 
it began its flight, namely, the speed of the 
earth whirling from West to East on its 
axis, which inertia should not last long, 
if the machine flies in the opposite direc- 
tion — westward, then it is making mileage 
on its own account, and is no longer car- 
ried eastward in the direction the earth 
is turning. Hence its mileage should re- 
duce the time required to reach any fixed 
point west of Buffalo, say Chicago, for 
Chicago is coming east at the rate of 1041 
miles per hour and the machine is going 

41 



west at the rate of, say 180 miles per hour, 
so in less than y 2 an hour, the machine 
would reach Chicago, for the distance is 
only 540 miles by rail. 

One of the two things must be true, 
either the earth does not rotate, or the air 
machine, while flying, rotates with the 
earth like a fixed thing — like a tree rooted 
in the earth. If the latter be true, flying 
is not a separate act, or speed by itself; but 
an act and a speed in conjunction and in 
conformity to the rotating speed of the 
earth. On the other hand, if flying is an 
independent act, not hampered and con- 
trolled by earthly influences, then, when the 
machine breaks the spell of gravity and goes 
into the yielding and elastic air and exer- 
cises free motion and speed of its own, it 
brings discredit and doubt on the theory 
of the daily complete revolution of the 
earth, and all on board and attached to the 
earth. For, if the earth daily rotates at a 
speed of 1041 miles plus, per hour, San 
Francisco is coming east, for a period of 
12 hours; and then going west, for a period 
of 12 hours, to its starting point, or place 
of beginning; and it is constantly occupy- 
ing a different place in the orbit of the 
little journey, day and night and all the 

42 



time; and the same is true of all other 
places on the earth's surface except the 
geographical poles. As we near the said 
poles, each way — north and south, the 
orbit grows less, the greatest orbit being 
at the equator. Now, with all this travel- 
ing of cities, why could not men in the 
flying machine wait for their coming, or 
go out to meet the cities and towns as they 
come round? Why travel to San Fran- 
cisco, if San Francisco is coming to you, 
when in the air flying? And, if it don't 
come round, then the earth does not re- 
volve, or the air machine travels in the 
same direction as the earth is rotating, as 
though attached to it, and never getting 
any nearer to San Francisco, than San 
Francisco gets to the machine — like two 
fixed cities located on the earth's surface 
at distant points. But that is not true of 
the air-machine, when flying, so that, things 
and facts and theories do not harmonize; 
and scholars seem not to have gotten at the 
truth, as yet; or, in effect, is the trackless 
air to the flying machine, what the rail- 
road track is to the railroad? We go from 
point to point at the same time the whole 
earth rotates, which, with flyers, is due to 
the air rotating with the earth, and the ma- 

43 



chine rotating with the air. Traveling the 
air is not like traveling a railroad track, so 
this assumption is not sound. 

The whirling of the earth on its axis 
would change the points of the compass. 
It would not change the direction of the 
needle, which always points to the north, 
varying, of course, with the variation of 
the magnetic pole and the side of the earth 
on which the compass is located and the 
nearness to the pole; but, if west was west 
by day, it would not be west at night ; and 
east, if east by day, would be west at night, 
if east and west are a fixed direction in 
space. To illustrate, place a miniature 
man standing on a globe at the equator 
facing north, with left hand pointing west 
and right hand pointing east. That posi- 
tion of the man by day, would be the oppo- 
site by night — the right hand would point 
west and the left, east; yet mariners ex- 
perience no difficulties in keeping direc- 
tions in the waters on either side of the 
earth. Hence, east and west are not fixed 
points in space, but constantly changing 
in direction, or the earth does not revolve. 

The compass has no celestial aspira- 
tions, so to speak, but its longings, desires 
inclinations and aspirations are all earth- 

44 



ward, I take it, hence, it's up to altitude 
flyers, to take up with them a compass, 
that is free to dip, or turn this way and 
that; and test what the compass will do in 
high altitudes. Can an altitude flyer go be- 
yond the influence of earth's magnetism? 
He has not been able, thus far, to go be- 
yond the reach of gravitation. Does mag- 
netism extend as far from earth as grav- 
itation? Are they the same? 

If a compass is free to dip ; and an alti- 
tude flyer goes up at the north pole, with 
such a compass on board, it should stand 
on its head with its tail up; but, if the 
same flyer went up, that is down, at the 
south pole to an equal height, then the 
compass, I assume, would point in the re- 
verse order — the point up and the tail 
down. And, furthermore, if flyers could 
soar beyond the magnetic influence of the 
earth, the compass would be useless; and 
useless in directing a flyers course, when 
it stands on end. 

An altitude flyer at the North Pole, in 
climbing the air, would go up, and when 
he came down, he would come down; but 
an altitude flyer at the south pole, when he 
went up, would go down, and when he 
went down, would go up, that is, if the 

45 



earth is a sphere and it does not run away 
from him in speeding forward. Up, at the 
south pole, is the reverse of up at the north 
pole. 

Another test of the speeding of the 
earth on its greater and lesser journeys, 
which has not been thoroughly tested out, 
so far as I know, is the use of long range 
guns, which can send a missile very much 
higher than any altitude flyer can go. The 
big Bertha, which the Germans used to 
fire on Paris had a range of 70, or 75 miles. 
The projectile of that, or similar gun, was 
19 inches long and weighed 264 pounds. 
Some of these big guns weighed 318,000 
pounds. Now, any long and powerful gun, 
that would send a projectile 24 to 50, or 
more miles high in the air, if directed up- 
ward in a vertical line, say in the north 
temperate zone, or at the equator, would 
give a reliable test as to speeding, or no 
speeding, of the earth. If the earth did not 
speed on its axis, the projectile would 
come down about where it went up; but, 
if the earth did speed on its axis at 1040 
miles per hour, the projectile would drop 
many miles east, or west, of where it went 
up. It would be west, if west on the dial of 

46 



the compass was on the left hand side of 
a man standing at the base of the needle, 
when the needle was over the north point 
on the dial. 

Furthermore, the projectile would not 
return to earth, if the earth is actually 
speeding forward on its yearly orbit at 
the rate of 64,102 56/100 miles per hour, 
unless the gravitation speed of the falling 
projectile was equal to, or more than the 
speed of the earth forward; and we know, 
that the gravity speed of a projectile, that 
might weigh anywhere from 50 to 300 
pounds, would be much less than the grav- 
ity speed of a falling flying machine, which 
weighs several times more than that. The 
projectile used for making the test sug- 
gested, should be one, that would not ex- 
plode and go to pieces, but return, as a 
whole, or in part, as it went up. 

Of late there has been some theorizing 
and assumption, that a projectile could be 
constructed with a series of explosive 
cavities, which would boost it to the 
moon (238,840 miles from the earth) after 
the first send off; but we await results. 

We leave The Greater and The Lesser 
Journey to the fair minded reader to 
ponder and decide, as to the logic and the 

47 



No Love 
Without 
Duality. 



65 



Soul-Mind 
of God. 

67 



Abraham 
Lincoln. 

68 



facts, believing, that we have at least un- 
settled the accepted theories; and punched 
some holes in the scientific teachings of 
the present day. 

Love precedes life; and love makes life 
worth living. Without duality there could 
be no love. You cannot love unless there 
is something to love; and that something 
is another life. 



55 If God was not disembodied, He would 

not be God; but He puts himself into vis- 
ible life in every direction. 



Nature is not under a curse. Nature is 
the soul-mind of God; and speaks through 
the soul-mind of man. 

A dual life on earth hath man, 
Which nature holds, for a brief span ; 
And then, it goes beyond this earth, 
For the soul has immortal birth. 



Abraham Lincoln* (1808-65)— Honest 
Abe, the friend of humanity, the most 
loved of all men, by the common people, 
and everybody now, we trust. 

He stood alone, strong, noble, brave, 
steadfast in purpose, with malice toward 
none, like a seer, who had vision of a united 



* Wednesday, February 12, 1920 — 55 years de- 
ceased. The first President of the United States that 
I remember. 

48 



people to follow civil war between a di- 
vided brotherhood and nation. 

He lived a life of stern reality, from 
start to finish. Struggle followed strug- 
gle, achievement after achievement. The 
man forged out of Nature with a soul, that 
only God could give, to meet the crises of 
the time in which he lived. His life is a 
gospel lived, which can never die. 

Who can behold his character without 
tears in their eyes and devotion in their 
heart? 



69 All the good mental traits in man are 

found in God. 



70 Mind is the source of character. 



71 The word variation is written over all 

creation. 



72 Without some kind of duality, some- 

where, there can not be life anywhere. 



73 Thought is the function of the soul- 

soul-mind. 



74 The chief objection to a rooming house 

is, that roomers start rumors, that are not 
boomers, but doomers of the business. 

49 



Conform- By far the great majority of men and 

ers and women are conformers, not reformers. 

Reformers. The reformers are few and far between; 

75 and reformers are, also, transformers and 
originators. 

Center of I do not know, but I believe, that the 

Thought center of thought and the center of sleep 
and Sleep. are one and the same center in the brain, 

76 or closely related; and the ultimate and 
final center of vision is not remote, but 
near-by. 

Were it not Some lives are run more by instinct 

for Instinct than by reason. 

We Would We would all be good, except the de- 

All be praved and vicious born, were it not for 

instinct, which is at variance with the kind 

77 of civilization and moral status we have. 

The man, who has established craving 
for intoxicating liquor, has established an 
artificial instinct in himself, caused by tis- 
sue changes, which the drug produces. In- 
stinct, artificial or natural, is organic and 
histological. It's seat is in the anitomical 
man and not in the soul. The soul is 
often weaker than instinct, or may be- 
come so, by degeneration and depravity. 
When an artificial instinct is established, 
that person needs help, for he seldom has 

50 



78 



sufficient will power to break it himself; 
and will go down. The natural instincts 
are persistent enough, but the artificial, or 
acquired instincts, are more so. 

Trivial things may be great in influ- 
ence. 



Bread 
Requires 

Three 
Lives. 



79 



It takes three lives to make a loaf of 
bread. The germ life, or seeds of the 
wheat, furnish the flour; the yeast plant is 
the life of the yeast; and then there is the 
soul-life of the cook. The first two would 
accomplish nothing without the third. 



Thought Creation of the universe was not spon- 

Precedes taneous, accidental or by chance. Thought 

Creation. precedes action, thought precedes crea- 

80 tion. All nature is evidence, and so is man. 



Love 
Requires 
No In- 
structions. 
81 



There is no one thing more productive 
of good and evil in the world, than love. 

Our colleges and universities teach 
most everything; but there is no chair on 
love. Love requires no instruction. You 
can't educate instinct; and the great uni- 
versal instinct is love. To give instruction 
in love would be as foolish, as to undertake 
to teach a man the way to his mouth. 
There is instinct love and soul love. In 
most human lives the two are blended. 

51 



Great and 
the Near 
Great. 

82 



Greatness has its stress and strain, 
Its tides, its glory and its wane. 

The Near Great — 

A step would make them great; 
And that step is their fate — 

because they can't take it. The way is 
not clear. Something opposes. The oppor- 
tunity comes not. They lack the courage, 
the initiative, sufficient following, re- 
sources, financial or otherwise — some- 
thing prevents, that one, last step. 



Advice to 
Young 
Ladies with 
a Cold. 

83 



Advice to young ladies in love, that 
have a cold. Accept only sanitary kisses. 
Lovers are restricted and only allowed to 

Whisper in your ear, 
Kiss the cheek, that's near, 
Forego the wet nose, 
And lips like the rose. 

Isn't that enough? 

Why pass your cold along 
To the whole family throng? 

Love is contagious and begets con- 
tagion. 



Spirits — The best side of humanity is Godlike. 

Dual The worst side, reveals the evil Spirit. 

Opposite. There are two spirits, dual opposite spirits 

84 — good and bad. 

52 



We Know There are more unsolved problems in 

and We science, than in religion. We meet the un- 

Don't known at every turn. We don't know 

Know. what electricity is. We don't know what 

The Great- magnetism is. We don't know what grav- 
nessofOur itation is. We don't know what light is, 
Ignorance, nor the make-up of the sun. There is so 
85 much about air, and the ether of space, 
that is not understood. We do not under- 
stand the germination of seeds, nor the 
origin of infinitesimal life everywhere. In 
fact, there is very little, that we know from 
start to finish, and can fully account for. 
What we really know is only one drop in 
the bucket, compared to what we do not 
know; and that greatly over-states our 
knowledge. No wonder we thirst for 
knowledge; but we must have a knowl- 
edge of our lack of knowledge, in order to 
thirst for knowledge. The man, who is 
educated up to his ignorance, is well edu- 
cated. 



Instinct If man did not have as much instinct 

as a spider, a beaver, or a crow, though 
86 different, he would be a physical and a so- 
cial failure, to say nothing about other 
possible attainments. 

53 



Life — Visi- 
ble and 
Invisible. 
87 



Invisible life far out-numbers visible 
life. If invisible life should suddenly be- 
come visible, the people of the earth would 
all run and hide, faint away, or suffer 
nervous prostration. 

If each individual of the entire invis- 
ible world, became as large as a cat, there 
would be nothing left for the visible world 
to eat, for the invisible world would over- 
populate the visible world. Consider the 
ravages of only one specie of visible life, 
the Warrior Ant of Africa, when it turns 
out in full force to take the life out of 
everything in its course, even that of ele- 
phants and men. How fortunate, that in- 
visible life, being so great in numbers, is 
so small in size. 

There is more or less exchange going 
on in life, constantly, that is, the visible 
only remains visible, for a short time, and 
then becomes invisible; and the invisible, 
life, some of it, only remains invisible for 
a short time, and then becomes visible; 
and so life is always passing each way, 
over the boundary line between the visible 
and the invisible worlds; only the invisible 
world; at any one time, far exceeds the 
visible world, for there are vast millions 
of various and unlike microscopical forms 

54 



Know 
Thyself. 



89 



of life, that never cross over into the vis- 
ible, as visible life, except as seen under the 
microscope, yet, they are essential and 
necessary, directly or indirectly, to the life 
and growth of plants and to the life of 
man and animals. It is also true, that in- 
visible, bacterial life, destroys visible life, 
and some types of invisible life are more 
deadly to mankind, than the fierce and 
deadly wars of nations. The flu, for ex- 
ample; and so it is, that invisible life is 
good and bad, just as we are. 



88 People, who make a success in the 

world, on their own account, know the 
meaning of service and self-denial. 



"Know thyself" — not an easy ac- 
quaintance. Analyze thyself — difficult job. 
Why continue blind to thine own faults, 
as most of us do? Be as critical with your- 
self, as with those with whom you come 
in contact — good advice; but difficult to 
practice. 



Abundance Between too little and too much, there 

is Found. is abundance — a good deal, enough for all ; 
90 but you must get it while the picking is 
good. 

55 



Ultimate 
Founda- 
tions do 
not Exist. 
91 



92 



Light — 

Influence 

of. 



93 



Preachers 
and 

Teachers. 
94 



That which is your foundation — the 
earth, has no foundation. It moves con- 
stantly in unseen, ethereal space. Ulti- 
mate foundations do not exist, that is, if 
our present day, scientific knowledge is 
correct. 



"It doesn't matter" is no matter; but 
no matter is often much matter. 



House plants are ever turning toward 
the light. They have no brains, but they 
seem to know, that their life depends on 
the light, and that they can not thrive 
without it. What a lesson, in a few words, 
is here embodied for mankind. Light for 
humanity, in mind and for the body, will 
do as much — strengthen and preserve us, 
make us healthy and wise. 



Preachers and teachers are under-paid. 
Do the American people fail to grasp the 
importance of education and religion? 
There is a shortage of 300,000 competent 
teachers in our nation at the present time 
— January 1920. Remedy — more up to 
date practical piety, sobriety, variety, re- 
liety, headed by good business sense and 
efficiency with the conviction, that relig- 

56 



ion and education are the foundation of 
manhood and brotherhood. 

The religion should be of a kind, that 
is useful every day in the week, and not 
for one day in seven. Its gaze should be 
forward and progressive; not backward 
and statical, i. e., sternly and rigidly fixed 
for all time. 

The education should be of a practical 
and experimental sort, based on truth and 
facts, also, liberal and broad. 

Thirty Protestant Churches join — 
Friday, Feb. 6, 1920— the union of "United 
Churches of Christ in America, for the 
furtherance of the redemptive work of 
Christ in the world." We wish them great 
results for good. 

And the Protestant Churches are, also, 
planning to raise this year (1920) a big 
fund, a generous amount, over $1,000,000,- 
000 to finance their campaign, for moral 
and religious betterment of mankind now 
on earth. 

That looks like business. The churches 
are reforming, conforming and pulling to- 
gether, for one common, great cause. The 
world is much in need of goodness. The 
old devil, we heard about so many years 
ago, seems to have come to earth again. 

57 



Unknown 
— How to 
Find. 

95 



96 



97 



Death 
for Life. 



98 



Faith 
Cures. 



99 



We don't work from the unknown to 
the known. We always work from the 
known to the unknown. That's how we 
find the X in algebra; and that is the way 
we find the X (the unknown) everywhere. 



Every birth means a death, sooner or 
later. 



Blessed is the man, that can give and take, 
For self alone ; no, for his comrade's sake. 

We can endure a bit, if a good sport, 

We gather more, if we don't play too short. 



We must live to die, and we must die 
to live. 

The blossom lives; but it dies for the 
fruit, the fruit lives; but it dies for the 
seed; and the seed dies and gives back the 
life again. 

We have in our midst a so-called 
healer, from London, England, who is in- 
dorsed by the Episcopal clergymen of our 
city, and he holds meetings in the St. 
Paul's Church daily. His coming was her- 
alded by the press. The lame, the blind 
and the chronically ill, that medical skill 
had not cured, were invited to visit him. 

58 



This is his first week in town ; and afflicted 
humanity have rushed to see him. The 
police are in charge of the church to main- 
tain order. 

The healer uses no visible means of 
cure. Medicines, massage, baths, electrici- 
ty, exercise, diet — all that's practiced in 
the art of healing, is ignored, and only 
silent prayer is offered in behalf of those, 
who get under his spell. He believes in 
Christ, as the Saviour of the world, physi- 
cally, as well as spiritually. That Christ 
can restore health to morbid and diseased 
anatomy now, as in the past, in answer to 
prayer — if the suffering one has sufficient 
faith in Christ — or the medium — the 
healer. 

This man of prayer and faith affirms, 
that he is not in line with Mrs. Eddy, for 
Mrs. Eddy was not in accord with Christ 
in healing the sick. Christian Science 
holds, that the spirit — the immortal mind 
is everything, the body is not real — there 
is no nerves or pain, no flesh or organs in 
mankind to get out of order; and ill health, 
is morbid mind. Set the mind right, then 
all else will be healthy and normal. Per- 
haps we misunderstand Mrs. Eddy, as 
she is not clear. We quote from Science 

59 



and Health — "The truths of immortal 
mind sustain man; and they annihilate the 
fables and mortal mind, whose flimsy and 
gaudy pretentions, like silly moths, singe 
their own wings and fall into dust. In 
reality there is no mortal mind, and con- 
sequently no transference of mortal 
thought and will power." 

The healer calls on God, or the Son of 
God, to make diseased people well, and to 
do it immediately. Superhuman power, if 
it acts, it must work miracles in trans- 
forming diseased bodies into healthy ones. 
If withered limbs are restored, if hardened 
arteries are made young, if the blind are 
given sight — what is all this, but miracu- 
lous healing? And, if a little prayer, by a 
stranger, who has no greater faith in God 
than many other good men and women in 
the world; and, who has no special favors 
from the spirit-world, .can bring about 
such results, then God, knowing the great 
need of humanity, how sorely they are af- 
flicted, should not withhold himself and 
wait for some petty new-comer, who im- 
plores him to act and do these marvelous 
cures. It looks as though God was cold- 
hearted and unmerciful, not to do all in 
his power without special request from a 

60 



mere man, who is completely helpless in 
and of himself, who has no magic power 
over himself, or anybody else; and, who 
must sleep and eat to live; and, who must, 
also, suffer and die, in course of time, the 
same as other men. The healer is as 
human, as the flesh he seeks to heal. 

Faith has wonderful influence in busi- 
ness and in all the pursuits, ventures and 
activities of life. It imparts zeal to life; 
and, with love, is the essence of devotion. 
The greater faith, the greater the results, 
in health or disease, in business or religion. 
As thy faith, so shall it be unto thee; but 
no sane man believes in the impossible; 
and no right minded person believes, that 
God, or Christ, restores the lungs of a con- 
sumptive, heals leprosy, destroys the 
poison of diphtheria, releases the valves of 
a human heart, crippled by rheumatic en- 
docarditis, or puts life into a palsied limb, 
any more than He changes the laws of 
gravity, when you go over a precipice* 
Mind influences the body, and so does 
faith, which is a mental act; but this influ- 
ence has its limitations; and is not always 
active. There are conditions in disease, as 
elsewhere in the universe, that faith and 
God fail to change, otherwise, faith would 

61 



rule science, natural law and even death. 
But faith is not the cure. It is essential 
to the cure. It is the means to the end — 
the connecting link between God and man. 
We frequently hear this expression — "All 
things are possible with God." That is 
man's conception of God; but God fixes 
his limitation, or conforms to limitation; 
and He is none the less God, for so doing. 
He is the more logical, the more natural, 
the more understandable God in conform- 
ing to limitations. God does not restore 
sight to an eye blinded by a cataract. He 
does not give motion to joints, that are 
anchylosed. 

If bitten by a rattlesnake, 

Or you take poison by mistake, 

unaided faith and prayer will not save you. 

Grant, that God is all powerful. That 
he can do this and that; but, if he don't 
and never does, what good is the can? 
Christ healed the sick. He was therefore, 
a healer. He said to one of his patients — 
"Thy faith hath made thee whole, go thy 
way, sin no more." Faith in God and 
prayer is a noble and a blessed thing. It 
does very much for us both in health and 
disease; and, if we had greater faith and 
were given more to prayer, we would be 

62 



better men and women, and the whole 
world would be better; but we must be 
sane in our reason, and in our understand- 
ing of both God and man; and remember, 
we too are gods, for we are like God and 
He is like us; and, therein, is our oneness 
with God. 

God, when rightly understood, does 
the sane thing, the understandable thing, 
if our vision was only clear, and our 
reason was devoid of error and far reach- 
ing and broad enough, it would be so. 
God is like man — a reasonable, intellect- 
ual and a rational God, otherwise, we 
could not understand him at all. He acts 
through man, for the good of man and to 
work out the divine plans; and man acts 
through God, for his own good — for 
guidance, solace and up-lift. Man is the 
only intelligent outlet for God; and, were 
it not for our intelligence, there would be 
no, known God. Think of these things. 
Think of the dependence of God on Man. 
Man is the mouthpiece of God. The hu- 
man race, His actors on the great stage 
of visible life. Sane and sound intelligence 
should not misjudge God and give him 
credit, for what he does not do, or demand 

63 



of Him what wise, human beings know is 
impossible. 



Habits. There are habits and habits, and differ- 

100 ent kinds of habits. There are good habits 

and bad habits; and a good habit does not 

cost as much as a bad habit, in the long 

run. 

Wood-alcohol, in whiskey, takes the 
lives of 71 people in 7 eastern cities and 
Chicago, in 48 hours ; and nearly one hun- 
dred and fifty (150) others are made blind, 
paralyzed, or ill, and the death list is grow- 
ing; Sunday Press, Dec. 28, 1919. 

The rat is caught with rat-poison; and 
man is caught with whiskey poison. Both 
like the bait. Some people had rather take 
strong drink and die, than drink water 
and live. Prohibition is no hardship, for 
men and women who have not got the 
drink habit. The danger of a habit — the 
fact, that some bad habits shorten life and 
kill, does not prevent the formation of 
those habits. Habits are not formed sud- 
denly. It takes time and money to paint a 
nose red with alcohol. A habit is preceded 
by custom and practice. A custom does 
not become a habit until it has been prac- 
ticed so long, that it controls and impels 

64 



the life. Habit is a habit, when the grip 
on life is so strong, that the life can not 
easily break it, or has not the will power 
to overcome the habit and cease to be an- 
noyed by it. A man with a habit is not a 
free man. A good habit may hold a man, 
as well as a bad habit; but a bad habit 
lowers a man mentally, physically and 
morally; and he is gripped, swayed and 
held by it, until his freedom is completely 
lost and his career wrecked, unless he re- 
forms, or breaks the habit, before it ruins 
him. 

Habit, when it goes so far as to con- 
trol and impel the life, is similar, in its im- 
pelling force, to instinct. Instinct is natu- 
ral, but habit is acquired, yet both govern 
life — the one for good, the other chiefly 
for ill. 

The time to prevent a habit is when the 
custom and practice, whatever it may be, 
is becoming an appetite, or a practice, that 
is rapidly, or gradually getting you in its 
grip. The time to prevent going over 
Niagara Falls is before you reach the 
breakers — then you are gone. But while in 
the stream, safe distance from, the rapids, 
pull for the shore, pull hard, and keep pull- 
ing, for you are drifting, drifting, to your 

65 



doom; and only a strong, determined and 
incessant pull, for life, will save you. It's 
so with the whiskey habit — the worst and 
most fatal. 

Habits must be deceptive and insid- 
ious in their formation, otherwise they 
would be cast off, or broken, before they 
become a prison chain, or a death sen- 
tence. Look out for deception. Do not be 
guilty of that practice on yourself. "To 
thine own self be true, and it will follow, 
as the night the day, thou canst not then 
be false to any man." 

A man under the influence of liquor 
is not natural. He is false to himself and 
false to the world. 



Modesty. The ^ rst dress worn was a fig-leaf — no more, 

It covered a bit not covered before. 



101 



Has the word lost its meaning? Is 
modesty obsolete — a thing of the past? 
Who blushes nowadays? Who is shocked, 
or chagrined at what may,, or does take 
place in society, or on the stage? And the 
daily news journals describe and portray 
events unscreened, and in plain words. 
No sub rosa, no reading between the lines 
— it's all laid bare and picturesque. Nude 

66 



art is here in all its beauty and enticing 
allurement; and it is taken from nature — 
the real thing. Stenciled knees (female) 
are the latest fad for Venice, Cal. ; but the 
exposed stenciling is extended to nearly 
the branching of the thighs; and then be- 
hold the eyes of the opposite gender, who 
are, also, garbed like Adams, with a plus, 
in that famous garden of innocence where 
there was no modesty, as now, for the 
word had not been coined; but how about 
the innocence, these latter days? 

It's all in getting accustomed to nudity. 
The unclothed beast and animals in na- 
ture have no modesty, and the same is true 
of the various wild, uncivilized races of 
mankind on the earth. Absence of cloth- 
ing, exposure, does not shame them in 
the least. Modern society seems tired of 
restraint and is breaking, more or less, 
the fetters, or restrictions, which civiliza- 
tion, culture and refinement are imposing. 
Note the absence, or scanty dress of the 
ladies at the Blue Bird Ball recently given 
in New York City, also, the terpsichorean 
feats, with feathers, by the fair sex in 
California — their exquisite graceful forms 
loosely, scantily and thinly veiled. Then 
there is the stenciled shoulder — latest 

67 



London fashion among women. The 
back is naked to the waist-line, with a 
rooster, or some bird, stenciled near the 
shoulder, or on the upper part of the back. 
Probably the greatest venture in living 
art appeared at a Frisco ball, not long ago, 
where a maid danced in a "silver sheet", 
and nothing more. As shown in the press, 
she was not half dressed, and the "silver 
sheet" did not cover her feet, nor hide her 
meat — and no one was shocked. Is mod- 
esty a thing of the past? Are we going 
back to nature, or are we going mad? 



102 There is one way we never lose, and 

that is the way to our mouth. 



103 Who has not been mortified by mis- 

takes? Do not let your mistakes worry 
you over much, for mistakes become 
teachers, when they benefit us. 



104 The greatest act of woman is mother 

of men. 



105 A man, who ignores a woman is unnat- 

ural. He has forgotten his birth-place. 

63 



Going it 
Alone — 
Joseph, 
Lincoln, 
Wash- 
ington. 



106 



I am moved to tears, when I read the 
biblical story of Joseph. That story should 
be staged in every church. My eyes will 
flood, when I read the struggles of Abra- 
ham Lincoln, for knowledge, and his deeds 
of kindness. He had a great heart, that 
went to the heart of the American people, 
and abides there, in a truer sense, than any 
other national character, that ever lived. 

Washington was great, but he never 
got the love of the people, as Lincoln did. 
I am in sympathy with any brave, true 
man, with a vision and a purpose in life, 
who struggles, often unaided and against 
obstacles and, some day, put it over. I 
have had a taste, and know the meaning 
of going it alone. 

Love is the most natural and influen- 
tial thing in the world, yet we can not 
handle it, as we do bread, or money. It is 
spiritual, and who can define it? It has a 
physical setting. We all know, yes we all 
know; but who can explain, who dare ven- 
ture a clear, comprehensive definition of 
Love? 

Mad Love. Love makes some young men mad — 

108 insane. It does not have that effect on old 

men. Love starts in the seat (that is near 

69 



Love, Who 
Can De- 
fine It? 

107 



enough for suggestion) ; and goes to the 
head. It starts in the physical and influ- 
ences the mental; and that is why it makes 
some young men unbalanced. 

Somehow they get the idea, that there 
is only one woman in the world, and that 
is the woman they love. Women, physi- 
cally, are about the same; and there are 
many women, that can respond to love 
and meet the demands of a man, and make 
him contented and happy, then, why go 
insane, if one woman, out of many thou- 
sands, turns you down and is not respon- 
sive? That one woman may be a little 
taller, or a little shorter; she may be a little 
fatter, or a little leaner, a little richer, or a 
little poorer, than some other damsel. 
Again, her eyes may be blue, or brown, or 
black, deep set, or large, wide, full, shy, or 
gamy, with lashes and a brow that add 
to her beauty. Her nose may be aquiline, 
cogitative, or celestial (up-turned) ; and 
her teeth may be like pearls, regular and 
shapely, with mouth small, or wide, lips 
that curl and glow, or thin and bleached, 
with teeth like an ancient graveyard. And 
the smile, her temper and her ways go 
with that peculiar grace beyond words to 
describe, or so eccentric, as to interest and 

70 



attract the man, that is keyed to that sort 
of female composition. There may be 
dimples, or none, receding chin, or other- 
wise. She may be a rustic, rural, nut- 
brown maiden; or a cultured city girl of 
song and story. Diversity has no end in 
feminine quality and anatomy, as in all 
life; and how fortunate it is so. Hence, 
all men may find in woman, that which 
charms, or attracts them ; but, if such a wo- 
man will not marry, though that woman 
warms his heart and is his choice, why go 
mad and kill her, kill himself, or kill both? 
Such tragedy does actually occur; and it 
occurs yearly and repeatedly in various 
parts of the world. So love may become 
desperate, destructive, tragical. Jealousy 
is an evil spirit — despotic, revengeful. 
Men, dominated by jealousy, are changed 
in character to a serpent, a mad bull, or a 
tiger, and something awful happens. Man 
kills the woman he loves above all others, 
or the other fellow, because she does not 
consent to matrimony. If she did marry 
such a man, what then? Would obedience 
to love make her safe — make her happy? 
Doubted. Love doth make him mad be- 
cause he is an animal, a beast; not a man, 
high minded, noble, brave. 

71 



Thousands of women are waiting, for men of 

noble parts, 
Then, why become defiant, if one should break 

your heart? 

Men expect so much of women, what 
have they to offer? 



109 College students are given diplomas 

they cannot read. That is dead language 
— silence profound. Why educate men be- 
yond their understanding? 



110 There is no good religion without love; 

but there may be love of a kind, without 
religion. It is no more difficult to under- 
stand religion, than to understand love, if 
we go at it right, and simplify it. 



Ill Any religion is a good religion, that 

makes mankind better physically, men- 
tally and morally. They are all ready 
made. Look them over and take your 
choice. For you, the best is that which 
warps your mind and conscience the least. 



Billy Sunday now has audience. When 

Sunday he began as an Evangelist; and, for some 

and the years after, the orthodox, creed-bound, 

Church. goody-goody church-members of the va- 

112 rious denominations were shocked by his 

72 



utterances and performances, and were of 
the opinion, that he would do more harm, 
than good, that he was vulgar and sacri- 
legious and they refused to hear him, or, 
if they heard him, went away to condemn 
and ridicule him and saw no more of him. 
To hear him once was enough. The regu- 
lar clergymen were the most shocked and 
the most critical and bitter in their denun- 
ciation of him. But Billy dared to be him- 
self. He had the courage of his convic- 
tions and bravely and fearlessly went for- 
ward with his message to fallen humanity. 
The common people, the slum people, and 
the unpolished people, who seldom, or 
never went to church, understood him. 
They sat up and paid attention. He gave 
his message to them in their own lan- 
guage; and they were moved and struck 
the trail, for better living and higher life. 

The Rev. Billy Sunday is mightily in 
earnest, rapid in speech, unique in action, 
strong, vigorous, forceful — puts life into 
his sermons, is a great actor, dramatic, 
spectacular from start to finish. He works 
with his head and works with his body, 
all at one time. He is never dry or stupid; 
and often surprisingly thrilling and amus- 

73 



ing. He makes his hearers laugh and weep 
and tarry at the mercy seat. 

Other great evangelists have been in- 
fluential with large audiences and accom- 
plished much good in the work. Moody 
spoke to large gatherings of people in Chi- 
cago, New York City and many other 
places; but Moody convinced the people 
by his simple, plain, serious speech. He 
was much in earnest and imparted that 
earnestness to others; but he was no per- 
former, no actor, no orator. The educa- 
tional center at Northfield, Mass., was 
founded by Moody and his soul goes 
marching on. 

Biederwolf is another worthy evange- 
list. He is eloquent, logical, oratorical and 
polished. His addresses are clear, emo- 
tional, stirring and convicting. His illus- 
trations and metaphors are well chosen, 
and he uses them to drive home his theme 
to the hearts of men. I heard Biederwolf 
a few years ago at Birmingham, Ala., one 
Sunday afternoon, when he spoke to a 
very large audience of men only. His in- 
fluence over those men was marvelous. He 
held their attention from start to finish; 
and a strange and unusual spirit seemed 
to attend and impress all lives present. 

74 



Personally, it took me hours to recover, or 
shake the spell. The response was great. 
The men went forward from all over the 
house, for better living. I have heard 
Moody and Sunday, Talmage and Beecher, 
Newman and McCabe of the Methodist 
Church and other well known preachers; 
but, that sermon by Biederwolf, was the 
best I ever heard. 

All great preachers and evangelists are 
great in their own way; but, of all those, 
that have come and gone, and of those in 
action now, none have eclipsed, or equalled 
Billy Sunday in his endurance, courage 
and rapid fire of words, his spectacular 
action and zeal; and none have reached 
the great audiences, that he has reached 
throughout the United States; and none 
have equalled him in the completeness and 
perfection of his systematic and orderly 
supervision and direction of the great 
assembly of people. 

Everywhere great tabernacles were 
erected to accommodate the people, that 
came to hear him; and large sums of 
money were raised to defray expenses of 
all sorts. He filled the tabernacles, he won 
the people and has achieved more, as an 
evangelist, than any other one man, that 

75 



ever lived. If he was crude, or vulgar, 
shocking and eccentric, it matters not, for, 
in his way, he rose to great power and in- 
fluence for good — never dreamed of by the 
regular church ; and came through unspoil- 
ed. He exalted not himself; but gave God 
the glor}^. 

One of our city clergymen, in a recent 
sermon; made the following statement; 
and it must be correct. "In 1909 the aver- 
age increase in membership of all the Pro- 
testant churches in the United States, that 
had a settled pastor, was two new mem- 
bers for each church." I assume, that the 
church membership has not increased 
since that date, as the clergymen are much 
alarmed about church attendance and the 
unconcern of the people. 

Billy Sunday demonstrated that, the 
churches do not reach the masses. He also 
has made clear to thoughtful men and 
women, who analyze his manner of 
preaching, that dramatic action on the 
platform is instructive, entertaining and 
impressive; and that truth can thus be 
portrayed, arrests attention, and makes a 
deeper impression on mankind. And this 
leads me to consider — Drama in the 
Church. 

76 



Drama The Passion Play is profoundly dra- 

in the matic. This play was first given in 1633 

Church. at Oberammergau, in Bavarian highlands 

113 by the natives of that village, as gratitude 
to God following the arrest of a plague, 
that devastated that section of the coun- 
try; and it has been repeated every ten 
years since, until recent time. Thousands 
of people, from all parts of the world, have 
seen The Passion Play; and thousands 
have been deeply impressed. Only good 
has followed this sort of sacred, dramatic 
art, presented by those common people, 
unskilled as actors, who put their whole 
soul in what they personated and believed 
in its holiness. 

It seems strange, that the church, 
knowing the effect of the Passion Play, 
did not repeat it the world over in the 
churches, for the good of the people every- 
where. The sacred drama, or any moral, 
or religious truth, can be more forcibly 
brought home to the minds of men by use 
of the drama, than in any other way; but 
it has taken ages to arouse the church to 
this fact. The church is just now begin- 
ning to understand the power of the sa- 
cred drama. It took a world war, the 

77 



worst war of all time; and the social and 
industrial unrest, now on, following that 
war, to arouse the church to use the drama 
to combat that unrest.* 

At Seattle, Washington, the Rev. Dr. 
J. E. Crowther, the mayor of the city — 
and all well meaning people of that local- 
ity, faced a serious condition. "The city 
was full of labor propaganda of the most 
vicious sort, the streets full of labor agi- 
tators, who spread their destructive gos- 
pel. There was a continual undercurrent 
of unrest, dissatisfaction and criticism. 
Mingled with it was a feeling of despair 
on the part of the helpless ones among 
those who were being swept along with 
the tide. They didn't know whom to be- 
lieve, what to trust, and what action to 
take." 

"The ministers of the churches tried to 
meet the situation by preaching long ser- 
mons about it. This didn't work. The peo- 
ple were up at high tension. They wanted 
something spectacular. The sermons bored 
them. If they wanted talk, the soap-box 
agitator on the street corner could give 



* The Passion Play is now being given, for the 
first time, in America (1920). 

78 



it to them in a manner more entertaining 
and considerably more colorful than the 
preacher in his pulpit.'' 

"So the clergymen turned to the most 
popular form of entertainment — the 
stage," and it worked. "The little pag- 
eants were taken out of Bible history. 
Instead of taking a text in the Bible and 
elaborating on it from the pulpit, the min- 
ister dramatized his text. The appeal was 
now to the eye, the ear, and the dramatic 
instincts, all at the same time. The con- 
gregations quickly responded to the new 
portrayal of religion, that could be linked 
up to present conditions." 

"There was, at first, opposition from a 
number of the Bishops of the churches 
against the popularization of Biblical sub- 
jects by presentation on the stage." "For 
years the criticism against the Church has 
been, that it detaches itself from the so- 
cial and economic life of the people; and 
limits itself to the religious life only. That 
criticism has to a large extent been a just 
one. The religion of a man cannot be sep- 
arate and apart from his daily life." 

79 



"The Wayfarer," the biblical pageant 
written by Dr. J. E. Crowther, which was 
recently given at Seattle, Wash., wonder- 
fully influencing the people there, has been 
taken up by the Industrial Relations Com- 
mittee of the Interchurch World Move- 
ment, and is now (Dec. 15, 1919) being 
given at Madison Square Garden, New 
York City in which eight thousand peo- 
ple take part. 

"The bigotry, narrowness and non-pro- 
gressiveness of the churches has been 
against the greatest good of the people in 
all generations; and it is gratifying to note, 
that the Industrial Relations Committee 
of The Interchurch World Movement, has 
come to the decision, that, in order to 
present the vital question of the day to 
large masses, they must make an appeal, 
first to aesthetic sense, and allow reason- 
able conclusions to grow out of that. 
They, also, agreed, that the ordinary meth- 
ods applied in church propaganda were 
not the best under current circumstances; 
and so they arranged, as above stated, 
to re-create the innumerable dramas in 
Bible history and link them up with the 
problems of to-day."* 



* All the above quotations taken from the New 
York Times Magazine, November 30, 1919. 

80 



The community, the town, the city, are 
no better than the moral status of the peo- 
ple that constitutes the inhabitance — no 
better than the character of the masses. 
Hence it is the business of the modern 
church to reach, instruct, enlighten the 
people in the way of right doing — in bet- 
ter living and thinking. To this end de- 
nominational differences should be set 
aside. Creeds, and non-essentials should 
be ignored and all denominations pull to- 
gether, as one church, for one purpose — 
the moral and social up-lift of the people. 

"The immediate necessity of organiza- 
tion of the scattered religious forces of the 
Protestant denominations throughout 
the United States, so that they may com- 
pete successfully with the work of other 
denominations, was urged by Dr. E. Earl 
Taylor of New York, general manager of 
the Interchurch World movement, at the 
federal council of churches, which contin- 
ued its session here today."f 

The signs of the times, in the religious 
field, is looking better, because it is shap- 



t This quotation appeared in The Buffalo Evening 
News, December 11, 1919, under the heading — SEEK- 
ING RELIGIOUS UNITY OF DENOMINATION. 
The federal council of churches was in session in Balti- 
more, Md., December 11, 1919. 

81 



ing toward united action, for the common 
good. 

Every church should be a theatre; and 
one of the best plans, for greater and bet- 
ter effort on the part of the Protestant 
christian world, in reaching all classes and 
conditions of social life, is to have great 
centers of worship, preferably located in 
the parks of the city, where there is ample 
ground for an enormous auditorium, 
where drama can be staged. In this local- 
ity, also, should be the schools of the city, 
under religious management and instruc- 
tion, where all branches of knowledge are 
taught, as the church and the school 
should be under one general supervision. 
The city should donate the ground for 
such educational centers. 

If the parks of the city are not properly 
located for secular and religious centers, 
then centers of ample capacity should be 
donated by the city, in various quarters, 
making an equal distribution of centers 
according to the population and the cen- 
ters of population. 

There should be clergymen enough to 
properly conduct these educational cen- 
ters, so that they may alternate in render- 

82 



114 



ing service to the people without overtax- 
ing their physical and mental endurance. 

The municipal authorities and the peo- 
ple should be united in this work; and the 
organization should be such, that all 
would have to contribute toward the main- 
tenance of these social centers, as the 
centers should not only functionate as 
stated, but they should, also, afford ample 
accommodations for social welfare and 
physical culture and sports. 

May this religious and social reform 
come speedily. It is up to the church. 
When the clergymen down their denom- 
inational differences and pull together for 
the common good, this new order of things 
will prevail. The people are ready for it. 
They are waiting. 



The church should not bar its doors 
against the people with rituals, creeds and 
orthodoxy. The church is for the many, — 

Not only for the few, 
That pay rent for the pew. 



115 The first business of the church, the 

nation and the government should be so- 
cial welfare — the betterment of the 
masses. 

83 



116 



117 



Miracles, 
Myths, 
Mysteries. 
118 



A nation, a church, or an individual, 
that looks backward, is doomed. There is 
only one way to look; and that is forward, 
in the direction of progress. 



Christ did not write, nor read. Had he 
written, he would have read. 

Christ is either a myth, or a prodigy. I 
regard him as the latter, with mythical 
attributes given him by the writers of the 
scriptures. 

Miracles, myths, mysteries — the three 
M's, get nowhere. They only smudge, fog 
and blind our vision and understanding. 
It is what we know, not what we do not 
know, that helps us. 

Who cares whether Christ walked on 
the water, or turned water into wine, or 
not; and did various other things contrary 
to science and nature, that does not help 
the moral up-lift of mankind, or teach us 
anything we can make use of. "Behold I 
show you a mystery." What of it, if a 
mystery is forever to remain a mystery 
with mankind? Such acts do not 
strengthen my faith. They strengthen my 
doubt and unbelief. The divineness of 
Christ is nothing, without his humanness 
and naturalness. 

84 



Golden 

Rule 

Week. 



119 



Men pray — "Not my will, but thine be 
done." That is submissive; but how are 
we to know the will of God, unless He 
makes it clear to us mentally? And, if his 
will is always to be carried out, indepen- 
dent of our own, why pray, "thy will be 
done," for it will be, regardless. God does 
not need to be reminded to exercise his 
own will; but He needs to know our will- 
ingness to act in accord with his will, when 
He makes it known. When the will of man 
and the will of God are connected up and 
are continuous and in harmony, that is as 
near righteousness as we ever get. 



The Golden Rule League of America 
is a new league with an old precept, which 
has never been equalled in fairness, justice 
and righteousness; and they have re- 
quested the people all over the United 
States to observe the week beginning Sun- 
day, January 25, 1920, as the Golden Rule 
Week, that is, the people are requested to 
put this rule in practice, as far as possible, 
for seven days. No restrictions, however, 
as to its continuous practice whenever pos- 
sible throughout life. 

Some man, or woman, has slighted, ig- 
nored, or snubbed me. There looms up in 

85 



my mind hatred and revenge. I desire to 
retaliate, to do the mean thing to them, 
because he, or she, did the mean thing to 
me. That is opposition, contention, dis- 
cord, revenge and war — if it go that far; 
and all, that precedes, is a good start, for 
that ultimatum. 

You have wronged me, therefore I 
wrong you. You strike me, therefore I 
strike you, Demon after demon — both 
bad. 

Because you do wrong, that is no 
reason why I should, also, do wrong, even 
though you have wronged me; but we do. 
We have all got a temper and we are all 
sensitive; and feel hurt, when the social 
set forget us; or when we have not been 
treated by our associates, or others, ac- 
cording to our own estimate, as to how 
we should be treated; but in judging 
others, we forget to judge ourselves, as we 
do them — in other words, we forget to 
render unto mankind what we want them 
to render unto us. 

I much prefer not to be slandered, mis- 
represented or deceived, therefore, I 
should not slander, deceive, or misrepre- 
sent my neighbor. What I will not allow 
him to do to me, I should not do to him. 

86 



You like to be well spoken of and en- 
joy friends, therefore, you should speak 
well of others, or hold your tongue; and 
exercise a friendly disposition; but choose, 
of course, your own personal friends. 

Law deals with the criminal, for the 
safety of the community. "He that tak- 
eth life shall lose his life;" and so the 
Golden Rule is not applied in dealing with 
heinous and base crime; but had the crim- 
inal obeyed the Golden Rule, he would not 
have committed the crime. He would not 
murder, for he, himself, desires not to be 
murdered. The Golden Rule is a personal 
thing — "as ye would." It starts in your- 
self, not with the other fellow. You must 
apply it, practice it, yourself, to get the 
benefit. When two men come together, if 
both believe in the Golden Rule, justice 
and righteousness are supreme; and fel- 
lowship evolves, if they blend well. 

We like toleration and patience, broad- 
mindedness and forgiveness, for petty of- 
fences, therefore, we should not be narrow 
or bigoted, and should be forgiving and 
tolerant, also patient with our fellow men. 

Whenever and wherever the Golden 
Rule is put into practice, in sincerity and 
in truth — it settles controversy and brings 

87 



peace. It drives out hatred and brings in 
harmony, friendship and love. It is the 
true foundation of the peace of the world 
and the brotherhood of man. 

If the human race cannot live the 
Golden Rule, then there is no religion, 
worth while, that will ever do more for 
mankind. There is no heart, or goodness, 
in any religion without the Golden Rule. 
Let us follow it the best we know how. 
As far, as we put it into practice, it will 
make us better. It is so simple, so clear, 
so well understood; and yet, so difficult to 
practice. "He that ruleth his spirit" — 
mind, "is greater than he, that taketh a 
city." 

We append the Golden Rule as it is 
written in the VI Chapter of St. Luke, 
31st verse — "And, as ye would, that men 
should do to you, do ye, also, to them 
likewise." 



120 The opinion we hold of ourselves deter- 

mines largely the opinion others hold 
of us. 



121 Don't misjudge a man because he does 

not agree with you. You are not always 
right, and that difference may be valuable 



to you. Remember it's variation and dif- 
ferences in the world, that accounts for 
progress. 

122 We judge men, not by their culture 

and intelligence; but by their ability, their 
efficiency and what they achieve. 



123 Five minutes is as good as an hour, if 

it's long enough. 



124 Life starts with a germ, so does 
disease. There is life to live and life to 
kill. We find similars and opposites every- 
where in Nature. Antagonism begins 
early. 

125 A man, that cures, is a curious man. 
Some say he is a Doctor; but a Doctor 
must be wise and efficient, as well as curi- 
ous; and keep mum his patients' confi- 
dence. 



When a When the average physician dies, 

Physician whether he has a city, or a country prac- 

Dies, the tice, the loss to the world is far greater 

Loss is than we assume. To alleviate suffering, 

Great. to cheer and comfort the sick, to combat 

126 disease and restore the ill to health, is ser- 
vice of a high and noble order. It's hu- 

89 



mane service, for humanity, from start to 
finish all the way through. It's personal, 
altogether personal; and can not be other- 
wise. The stress and strain is great; and 
the physician, who wisely and well follows 
his profession, is, also, great, though he 
may not be famous, or regarded as great 
in the community he serves — he is, how- 
ever, loved and appreciated by those he 
has greatly benefited. And, when he dies, 
the loss is not only the loss of his person- 
ality; but the loss of all his accumulated 
knowledge; medical skill and' resources. 
That means much, for he has learned from 
experience with disease and various disor- 
ders of the human system, what treatment 
is best to pursue; and he has some pet pre- 
scriptions, some specifics on which he has 
learned to rely, as decidedly and, often 
times, positively efficacious and curative. 
There are many physicians, who are not 
writers, or contributors to medical science 
and literature; and those, who are, do not 
empty out their medical and therapeutic 
attainments, as you would squeeze water 
out of a sponge; but they hold precious, 
some of their valuable and reliable discov- 
eries; and these are not given to the world, 
nor to the medical profession as common 

90 



knowledge, hence, when medical men die 
the loss is great. In their mental store- 
house, or private entries, they have great 
treasures the world knows not of; and 
when their life ends, all this "cream of the 
cream," so to speak, oi their medical 
knowledge, is lost — gone forever, unless, 
in later years, some other Doctor of Med- 
icine brings it back to earth again; and 
how can we know that, if no records are 
available? Medicine would have been far 
more advanced, than at the present time, 
had there been a way of avoiding this 
great loss ; and, if there was a way, of get- 
ting out of the medical profession, now 
alive, what is in them; and that could go 
on, generation after generation, the med- 
ical profession, in its rapid advancement 
toward pacific medication and efficiency, 
would astonish, not only the profession 
itself, but the whole world. 



127 To prevent stockings from "running," 

don't wear them. 



128 A Quaker in church only speaks when 

the spirit moves. Out of church he speaks 
only when the tongue moves. 

91 



129 



130 



131 



132 



133 



134 



World War 
and the 
Church. 



"Education in China" — That's what 
women have at home among the plates 
and platters, tea-cups and saucers. 



A knocker is a wrapper; but, when 
worn by the ladies, it's a Kimono. How 
peculiar the English language! No won- 
der people misunderstand each other. 



We meet and yet we have no meat to 
eat — more English. 

The black bear saw the white bare legs 
of Mary — more English. 



Civilization is a curse, when it bars, or 
hampers, the domestic and business life of 
men and women. We are too much civ- 
ilized, too much governed. 



Why cage a bird and not allow it to 
mate; and take its liberty to hear it sing? 
Poor thing! 

There is always a mystery in life some- 
where, if not everywhere. 



A world war could never occur, if the 
church reached the great mass of people 
and had them well in hand. The church 
never has and never will reach the major- 

92 



ity of the people until it reforms in doc- 
trine and practice. The church has been 
going backward, while everything else of 
an intelligent character, has been going 
forward. The church is statical, non-pro- 
gressive, because, like the ancient Chinese 
nation, it is facing backward, and taking 
the past as complete and final authority. 



Bolshevism. Bolshevism is murder, robbery, loot, 
136 tyranny, chaos. Leaders in Russia are 
Lenine and Trotzky. "Bolshevism, as we 
all know, demands the destruction of cap- 
ital and the return of all the products of 
labor to the workers themselves." 

"We knew, that communism, which 
we now call Bolshevism, was the death- 
knell of progress." — Quoted from The 
World Tide by Editor Metropolitan, 
Dec. 1919. 



Debts the A debt is what you owe. It usually 

Chief means money — not always, but most al- 

Cause of ways. A money debt implies credit. The 

Panics. source from whence the money came had 

137 faith in the borrower; or the borrower 

gave collateral, or that which is regarded 

as security of a satisfactory sort, that is, 

it was accepted by the source, that fur- 

93 



nished the loan, otherwise, the money 
could not have been borrowed. 

There is a safety limit to credit and to 
borrowing; but the practice has become 
so generally and universally followed, for 
many years by individuals, and by com- 
mercial business of all sorts, and by Gov- 
ernments the world over; that it has been 
largely over-done. Now, nearly all busi- 
ness, manufacturing industries, railroads 
and corporations of all sorts, and National 
Governments everywhere, are in debt. 
Most all real estate, the earth round and 
over, is mortgaged; and towns, countries, 
cities and states are in debt. Credit is over- 
done, largely over-done ; and over borrow- 
ing and over-credit is the cause of finan- 
cial panics. They have got to come, they 
will come, so long as debts exist every- 
where, in all lines of pursuits and indus- 
tries — men are in debt everywhere; and 
there is nothing, with few exceptions, that 
men handle, or produce, that has not an 
obligation attached to it — and, worst of 
all, is the Governments of men. 

Conditions are such, in the financial 
world at large, that if "Call money'' and 
debts due, were generally demanded a 
panic would result. Credit is abused and 

94 



misused; and the borrowing habit has 
brought the financial world to the border- 
land of a world wide calamity, intensified 
by war. When borrowing becomes exces- 
sive with all men and all nations, then, 
sooner or later, the business and financial 
world must suffer. Call it oposthotonos, 
to use a medical term, which is a backward 
convulsion in the spinal column of busi- 
ness ; and there is no cure, until we cure the 
habit of borrowing and doing all kinds 
of business, big and small, on credit. Debts 
are paid at one source by borrowing from 
another source, and getting a longer, or 
fresh run of credit; and debts are paid 
with debts and there is no end. Men come 
and go; but debts, like a well fed brook, 
run on forever. And the great and small 
governments put unborn generations in 
debt, for ages and ages. Is it just to 
heavily and financially burden the unborn? 

If you had to pay the debts of some 
ancestor of yours, that lived two hundred 
years ago, how would you like it? But 
Governments have license and are run as 
though perpetual; and, so it's quite the 
thing, for Governments to load posterity 
with debts, forever and forever; and there 
is no way of escape from this sort of in- 

95 



justice, for it happens before we enter life; 
and we must submit and carry the load 
until the next unborn set arrive and be- 
come active on the stage of life. 

The United States went to war ostensi- 
bly for freedom of the seas and for peace 
of the world; but the deep, basic motive 
and purpose was to save the credit of Eng- 
land and other powers, that owe our Gov- 
ernment $10,000,000,000; and it cost us 
$23,318,323,000 to do it. Total gross debt 
of the United States Sept. 1st, 1919— 
$26,600,000,000. 



Government A government for the people and by 
for the the people sounds good; and it has given 

People and rise to much lofty and beautiful oratory; 
by the but is it true? Is there any such govern- 

People. ment? Somewhere in North America a 

138 government of this kind was undertaken 
and succeeded in part; but it is not now 
as true to type as in former years; how- 
ever, it stands as the best example of that 
form of government, that has, thus far, 
been established on earth; and, if it con- 
tinues to develop, for the people and not 
against the people, it may maintain its 
early character and reputation; but there 
is danger. 

96 



Directly, the people have little to do 
with government, for the people and by 
the people, as now conducted, except at 
long intervals, when the political parties 
line up for election, the people vote, but 
not directly. The people vote for electors ; 
and those chosen in each State vote for 
candidates for President and Vice-Presi- 
dent, hence, "strictly speaking, there is 
no popular vote for President and Vice- 
President." 

Then there is Congress, consisting of 
both the Senate and the House of Repre- 
sentatives. There are two Senators from 
each State, elected by the State Legisla- 
ture; and there are about 400 members of 
the House elected by the vote of their Con- 
gressional District; and thus it happens, 
every four years, the Government goes 
over to the political leaders of one political 
party, or another; and they run the gov- 
ernment — not for the people, but for the 
party; and the Government is manipu- 
lated, keeping in memory, of course, the 
constitution and established laws; which 
leaves plenty of room for departure, inno- 
vation an* 4 the unusual and unexpected. 

Abor .11 there is, for the people in a 
goverr t by the people and for the 
people, as we know it now, is the debts. 

97 



The debts are for the people to pay and 
they are paid by the people; and the debts 
are made independent of the people. This 
is also true of all governments headed by 
Emperors, or Kings — of all monarchial 
governments. All national Governments 
spend the people's money without the con- 
sent of the people. The people have no 
voice in the debt making — yet they must 
carry the load however heavy and galling; 
and whether they feel it is just or unjust, 
righteous or unrighteous, or know it to be 
wasteful and prodigal. 

This helplessness of the people, in a 
government for the people and by the 
people, is inconsistent and paradoxical. 
To illustrate: 

"During the war the Government 
shoveled money out of the Treasury and 
dumped it about the country in cartloads, 
as though it were dirt. A system of "cost 
plus contracts" was adopted, under which 
the more money a contractor spent on his 
job, the more profit he got from the Gov- 
ernment, and it is a pity the people cannot 
even yet see how those contractors gird- 
ed themselves for the fray and, under the 
very eyes of government inspectors, 
squandered by the billions the money that 
had been raised in the patriotic loans and 

98 



taxes of a hard-pressed people. We ceased 
to count in millions, and through the 
hundreds of millions rose into the billions. 
Much of the expenditure was without sub- 
stantial result except the enrichment of 
war profiteers and war workers of all 
degrees." 

"But it had the result of burdening the 
people with a debt they will not be rid of 
for generations, of increasing taxes to an 
unheard-of degree, and of destroying every 
public and most of the private standards 
of thrift and economy. The inflated 
prices and wages, that were paid for shody 
material and skimping work, were spent 
as easily as they were made. Normal 
values were destroyed, extravagance, and 
needless luxury became common, the cost 
of the necesssities of life was correspond- 
ingly inflated, and a fearful burden was 
imposed upon those who still had to buy 
these necessities, but who had not been in 
a position to profit by increased prices and 
wages." 

"So it will be seen, that what happens 
in Washington in the next few months, 
and years, is very distinctly your problem, 
having its direct relation on your happi- 

99 



ness. The Government must learn respect 
for the people's money, and remember that 
every appropriation, no matter how ur- 
gent the appeal for it may be, should be 
considered first in the light of an over 
burdened people's capacity to pay."* 

This first business of a government, for 
the people and by the people, should be the 
social welfare and bettermen of the people; 
but that, in all existing governments to- 
day, comes last, if it comes at all. 

A government by the people and for 
the people, should not declare war without 
the consent and the direct vote of the peo- 
ple; for the people constitute the army and 

sacrifice themselves to defend and sustain 
their country and the perpetuity of their 
Government ; and the sacrifice in blood and 
money is met by the people. Those, who 
pay the price, should have a voice. Many 
horrible, unnecessary and extravagant 
wars would have been avoided, if put to 
the people — if the people had been given 
a choice. 



* Taken from an article that appeared in the Wo- 
man's Home Companion, May, 1920, under the title — 
"Two National Problems and How They Affect You 
Personally, by Miles Poindexter, U. S. Senator from 
Washington. 

100 



Wars of nations have been waged un- 
der five classifications — 

1. Religious wars; 

2. Wars for trade and territorial 
advantage — monopoly. Finan- 
cial wars; 

3. Wars to throw off the yoke of 
oppression and bondage; 

4. Wars of usurpation and those of 
anarchy and revolution; 

5. Wars for preservation of justice 
and right — and the maintenance 
of national constitution and 
unity of states — 

All of which, in the loss of life and prop- 
erty and the financial costs, have been 
enormous. 

The animal in men, the greed and av- 
arice of men; and the "rule or ruin" princi- 
ple; and that other infernal statement, 
that "might makes right" — are the un- 
savory, incentives of war, that is, of most 
wars. 

An enlightened nation, that believes in 
the brotherhood of man and the father- 
hood of God; and that cherishes the gold- 
en rule, is a safe Nation, in times of Na- 
tional peril, to decide the great question 
of war, or no war ; for, if war, they pay the 
price in life and money. The great sacri- 
fice is all their own. 

101 



A government, for the people and by 
the people, should give the people the 
square deal. The cost of maintaining a 
government in peace, or war, is paid by 
the people; and it is not fair to the people 
to squander public resources and revenues 
from the people, in prodigal extravagance 
and wasteful expenditure. A govern- 
ment should not be careless and extrava- 
gant with the use of peoples' money, be- 
cause the people can furnish more money, 
like bees, that are forced to make more 
honey, when the hive is robbed. 

A government should be run like any 
other great business, that is successfully 
and efficiently conducted, so that loss, 
waste and prodigal extravagance is 
avoided. To this end the budget system 
of Government expenditure should be 
adopted. In addition, there should be a 
small, well paid body of men commissioned 
to give their entire time and attention to 
the study of economics and efficiency in 
operating government affairs; and these 
men should be efficiency experts on the 
ways and means of operating government 
business — not with authority to act, but 
with authority to report to the people 
openly, in the public press, that which 

102 



would save time and money, and prove 
more efficient and productive, for the good 
of the Government, and for the good of all 
— the people. In other words, it would 
be the sole business of this commission, to 
report, how the business of the Govern- 
ment could be run and conducted in a busi- 
ness way; and suggest means for adoption 
to that end; and, also, point out, what is 
obsolete, unnecessary or extravagant, or 
defective and wasteful in operation, so that 
the leaks can be avoided. This commis- 
sion, in the course of time, would make 
clear, what is needed to meet the over-head 
expenses of Government, when wisely, 
economically and efficiently conducted— 
as any great, progressive corporation and 
manufacturing plant, that is up to date, is 
run. 

This Expert Commission on Govern- 
ment would belong to the people; and be 
elected directly by the people every three, 
or four years, as follows. Each State 
would nominate one candidate, then all 
the voting population of the nation would 
ballot for the candidates on a set day, and 
the five, receiving the largest number of 
votes, would be elected to office. Vacan- 
cies during the term of office to be filled 

103 



by appoint of the President. Each Govern- 
ment expert to receive a salary of $10,000 
per year. At the next election, the active 
members of the Commission would be can- 
didates for re-election, for a second term 
only, along with the newly chosen candi- 
dates — so that they could be kept in office, 
for a second term, if they served well. 

In the same manner the people should 
vote directly, for President and Vice-Pres- 
ident, that is, each state nominate candi- 
dates and the people vote directly, for the 
chosen candidates, on a set day. 

According to this plan, States are not 
obliged to nominate candidates for the 
presidency. It is optional whether they 
nominate or not. 

The number of candidates, to be voted 
for, could be lessened by half, if State 
elections took place, prior to the general 
election. Then only the successful candi- 
dates of each State would be voted for at 
the general election. 

Those candidates elected by the people 
at the general election, in all probability, 
would be elected by minority vote of all 
the States, except the vote of the State, 
that nominated or elected them, which, 
we assume, would give them a majority at 

104 



the general election. It matters not. The 
candidate receiving the majority vote of 
the people, from all the States, would be 
the choice of the people; and serve for four 
years. 

This would do away with the dark 
horse, intrigue and political strategy now 
common at conventions where Presidential 
candidates are chosen by vote. 

The President to receive salary of 
$200,000 per year; and Vice-President 
$25,000 per year. High officials of Gov- 
ernment are under paid. They are paid 
stingy salaries. Extravagance in Govern- 
ment is not due to extravagant salaries; 
but occurs in other ways. 

A government, for the people and by 
the people, should not be so administered 
as to antagonize the people in their peace- 
ful, social and business affairs. 

A meddlesome government, that 
probes home life and legitimate business 
life, that becomes a book-keeping govern- 
ment for the people; and gets its chief 
revenue by taxing thrift and efficiency in 
business, will, sooner or later, encourage 
dishonesty, chill thrift and provoke ani- 
mosity. 

105 



We Don't 
See and 
We Do See 
139 



If, out of every hundred men at 35 
years of age, 40 are in moderate means, 5 
dead and 35 have saved nothing; and if, 
out of every hundred men at the age of 65 
years, 36 have died and 54 are dependent 
on children, why tax thrift? Why, Why, 
Why, when there are other, much more 
simple, less complicated, less expensive 
and better ways of raising all the funds 
needed by a government, and abundantly 
giving all the revenue required? 

1 The expenses of a government must be 
met; but, if it requires the ill-will of the 
people to meet it, then what becomes of 
devotees? 

Government, for the people and by the 
people, should be so administered, as to 
encourage loyalty and devotion from the 
people; and whatever antagonizes the 
people, in their own Government, antag- 
onizes that Government. 



We don't see the wind, but we do see 
what it does when it blows down a tree, or 
wrecks a house. We don't see electricity, 
but we do see what it does when lighten- 
ing strikes somewhere, or when the elec- 
tric spark fires the gasoline in your auto- 
mobile. We don't see germs of disease 

106 



140 



The Other 
World- 
Immor- 
tality. 

141 



with unaided vision; and there are disease 
germs, that have never been seen under 
the microscope; but we do see their ill 
effect on life. We don't see the soul of 
man; but we do see what it does when it 
loves or hates, when it is honest, or dis- 
honest. The unseen things are always 
back of the seen. How slow we are to 
learn that fact. I have not said much, but 
in these few, simple words, I have 
preached a sermon, which ought to do 
much for you. 

All things we see, in our fair land, 
Not instigated by the mind of man, 
God thought and wrought the working plan. 

All there is to life, if we cut out im- 
mortality, is rotation of crops (human, or 
otherwise), and good and bad living. 



We do not know where it is located. 
Some people believe it is up in the sky — 
far away. In biblical stories, those who 
were translated, went up. There is no 
record of people leaving this world, going 
down. In mythology the gods went both 
ways. The god of Hades went down into 
the lower world — into regions of darkness. 
When Hades stole Persephone, he made 
off to the lower world; and, in course of 
time, she was allowed to return to the up- 

107 



per world, for six months in the year, 
order of Zeus — the god of light, or day. 
But the "other world", if it is anywhere, 
must be everywhere. 

There is only one way to the "other 
world"; and that is the way of death. You 
must die to go. That is why everybody 
dreads the trip. It's a one way transpor- 
tation. You can never return and can only 
take the journey once. In this respect it 
differs from all other journeys. It's final 
and forever. No baggage of any kind is 
allowed to go with the passenger; and he 
must travel alone and unattended. It's a 
solemn, sad, lonely journey; but all, who 
live, must take it. They have no choice 
in the matter. It is positive and impera- 
tive. No material — nothing, that you can 
handle, or touch, or see by natural vision, 
goes over into the "other world." Millions 
have passed over, generations have come 
and gone, for many ages; and that "other 
world" is not over-populated; and, what's 
more, over-population is impossible. Only 
souls journey to that undiscovered and 
mysterious country; and what is a soul? 
Man's soul is a spirit; and a spirit, if it's 
anything, must be a mind; and spirit, or 
mind, being immaterial, does not occupy 

108 



space, hence all the human beings, that 
have lived and died, in all the ages past; 
and all the millions, that may live and die 
in all the ages to come, will not occupy, 
as much space in the "other world", as one, 
only microbe. Heaven will never be over- 
populated. 

What concerns me, above all else, in 
regard to the spirit world, is the question 
— if it be true, that the spirit is the mind, 
can mind functionate independent of mat- 
ter in the spirit world? Flesh and blood 
are not allowed over there, neither are 
brains, hence, unless the mind can act in- 
dependent of matter in the spirit world, 
there is no self-consciousness; and, if there 
is no self-consciousness in the other world, 
it's a delusion. God will be lonely sur- 
rounded by a lot of unconscious spirits. 
And who cares about the future world, if 
his spirit is to be unconscious forever? 

"Oh home of the soul in my visions and dreams, 
Its bright jasper walls I can see; 
Till I fancy but thinly the veil intervenes 
Between the fair city and me." 

The author of the above song, in his 
"visions and dreams", likens the "home of 
the soul" to a city walled about with pol- 
ished jasper; but why think of that home 

109 



as a walled city? It has no sewers, electric 
lights, policemen, or trolley lines, and is 
not walled about, as ancient cities were. 
A city has location and limitations, but 
the "home of the soul" is not citylike, ex- 
cept, perhaps, in population (disembodied), 
so that the poet let his fancy run wild; and 
only poets can do that and get away with 
it. In one line the poet sees the "bright 
jasper walls;" and in the next line he fan- 
cies a thin "veil intervenes between the 
fair city and himself." The poet had a 
spectacular and glowing vision, but it is 
not plausible, or rational, and does not 
help us to a true understanding of the 
"home of the soul." 

"When we've been there ten thousand years, 

Bright shining as the sun; 
We've no less days to sing God's praise 

Than when we first begun." 

"Bright shining as the sun." Impossi- 
ble. Why compare the soul to the sun? 
They are in no respect similar in lustre, 
heat, function or size. 

"Sing God's praise." We do that here, 
and may continue to do that here-after; 
but, if that is the only occupation of the 
soul in the "other world", God will go 
crazy from incessant and excessive music 

no 



— song-worship. Can a soul, without a 
body, sing? Has it a voice? Who knows? 

After ten thousand years, "we've no 
less days to sing God's praise than when 
we first begun." There is no record kept 
of time in the other world. Eternity is 
endless; and on this point the poet seems 
to have scored true. But vision and fancy 
is about all poets, and other authors have 
to draw on in contemplating and depicting 
the life after death. Writers seem help- 
less to give us anything reasonable about 
the future world, taken from natural life 
— from creation, and what is in evidence 
here on earth. God has revealed so much 
on the physical side of life, that evidence 
of immortality from this source is far bet- 
ter and more convincing and reliable, than 
poetic fancy, visions and dreams. But, be- 
fore we go further, let us define, as clearly 
as possible, the words, soul, spirit and, al- 
so, heart, for the average mind does not 
have a clear idea of these terms, as com- 
monly used in the church and as they ap- 
pear in literature. Soul and spirit are syn- 
onymous terms and the distinction, if any, 
is not clearly defined. The same is true of 
heart. For example, we cite the following 
statement, taken from the Bible — "As a 

ill 



man thinketh in his heart, so is he." When 
heart is mentioned, my first thought is of 
the physical heart, which keeps the blood 
circulating through the body; but that 
heart, the physical heart, doesn't think. 
Hence, what does think? There is only 
one part of a man that thinks, and that is 
his mind. Therefore, the sentence will be 
understood, if we say — "As a man thinketh 
in his" MIND, "so is her That part of the 
mind, which is emotional, which is de- 
votional and sentimental; and, which loves, 

is the heart-mind. 

What is the soul? If we turn to the 
dictionary, we will find this: "Fervor; fire; 

grandeur of mind or other noble manifestations of the 
heart, or moral nature." Again we find this 
definition of the SOUl: "The moral and emo- 
tional part of mans nature; the seat of the sentiments 
or feelings." 

These definitions make the soul quite 
similar, or identical, with the heart; and 
the soul is not a thing by itself, inde- 
pendent of the mind, for "grandeur of the 
mind" is characteristic of the soul. 

The most clear definition we can give 
of the soul is to say, it is an attribute of 
the mind, therefore, when we use the 
word soul, to avoid confusion, we should 
say soul-mind. 

112 



Spirit in the dictionary, is defined as — 

"The principle of life, conceived as a fragment of the 
divine essence, breathed in man. 1 ' Another definition 
runs as follows : "A peculiar animating and inspiring 
principle; dominant influence; genius; that which per- 
vades and tempers the conduct and thought of men." 

It is evident from these definitions, that 
the spirit is, also, mental, and, therefore, 
in speaking- of spirit, it would be much 
better understood, if we used the com- 
pound word spirit-mind. 

The word spirit is derived from the La- 
tin word spiritus, that is "the breath of life, 
mind, soul, spirit;" and we can, also, add 
heart, so you see, that all these terms 
(heart, soul, spirit, life, mind) all have a 
somewhat similar meaning, and are all 
comprehended under spirit, more or less; 
but all these terms, independent of the 
mind, would mean nothing. Let us, there- 
fore, when we speak of heart say heart- 
mind, when we speak of soul, say soul- 
mind, when we refer to spirit, say spirit- 
mind, and there will then be no confusion. 
Go to the Bible again, and read, using the 
words as stated; and you will have a much 
clearer light on the text, if not a revela- 
tion. 

If there is any distinction between soul- 
mind and spirit-mind, or between the soul 

113 



and spirit, it is this — When the soul leaves 
the human body it is a spirit; and when the 
spirit is in the body, it is a soul: and the 
mind goes with the spirit, or there is no 
immortality. Consciousness, self-identity, 
goes with the spirit, or there is no future 
life of any kind worth consideration. Self- 
consciousness is the all important thing in 
the future life; and, if we do not have it, 
in some form, what then? 

"Although the human soul is united to 
the whole body, it has, nevertheless, its 
principal seat in the brain, where alone it 
not only understands and imagines; but, 
also, perceives"; — Descartes 5 * 1 ; and, we 
may add — creates. 

"Descartes originated distinct meta- 
physical dualism, which holds, that spirit 
and matter are two radically different 
kinds of substance — the former character- 
ized by consciousness, the latter by exten- 
sion — "which means taking up space by 



* Princ. of Philos. (tr. by Veitch) IV, § 189. Des- 
cartes (Da-kart). Born at LaHaye, Touraine, France, 
March 31, 1596; died at Stockholm, Sweden, Feb. 11, 
1650. "He revolutionized the science of thought;" and 
is sometimes referred to as the father of modern philos- 
ophy. 

114 



the cohesion of solid, separable, movable 
parts — molecules. f 

There is more duality in the human 
soul and body, than Descartes dreamed of 
in his philosophy, which was good, so far 
as it went; but it did not go far enough. 

Let us detour in our line of thought, 
for a short distance, so that we may return 
laden with more information and light on 
immortality. We glean from the physical 
side of life. 

Internally, the human body has several 
dual parts, namely, right and left brain; 
right and left lung; right and left kidney; 
right and left ovary, if female; and right 
and left testacular gland, if male. 

Externally, we, also, have double or- 
ganization, namely two eyes, which con- 
vey light to the retina and sensation to the 
brain; two ears, which convey sound to the 
right and left ear-drum and sensation to 
the brain; two nostrils, which convey air 
to the right and left lung, through the one, 
branching wind-pipe; and sensation of 
odor to the brain. There are right and left 



t Extension of space, to make clear from extension 
of matter, is denned as the continuity of unsolid, insep- 
arable^ immovable parts. Why parts? That spoils the 
definition. 

115 



groups of perforations at the base of the 
skull, through which the nerves of smell 
pass to the brain from the right and left 
nostril. 

The mouth, in conjunction with the 
nose, makes two ways for air to reach the 
lungs. If the nose fails to convey air, the 
mouth affords another way for air to reach 
the interior of the body, and vice versa. 
Wise and ingenious forethought on the 
part of the Inventor of life. 

Then, in the female, there are two 
breasts — right and left (rudimentary in 
man), so that there is dual provision for 
food, when baby arrives. 

Again, the human life has two arms 
and two legs, which are ample and double 
provision, for what they are capable of. 

But the nervous duality, wherein the 
soul-life functions in the human body, is 
the most wonderful, the most spiritual and 
the most God-like of anything from the 
physical side, possessed by mankind, ex- 
cept the soul-mind itself. 

The cerebro-spinal nervous system, is 
dual, in that it has nerves of sensation and 
nerves of motion and these act from the 
brain to the body, from above downward. 

116 



The will, volition and consciousness pre- 
side over this nervous system. 

But there is another nervous system, 
which acts independent of the will; and it 
is called the involuntary, or sympathetic 
system. This acts while the other nervous 
system rests. Every sleep would be a 
death were it not for this special nervous 
system, which keeps the heart going- and 
puts our physical house in order, while the 
strong, energizing brain and will-power 
sleep — night after night, and wake, strong, 
brave and well — refreshed and renewed in 
youth, ready for what may come. Sleep 
provides a glorious resurrection of physi- 
cal life; and, why not say, soul-life also? 

Yet, another duality common to man 
and life in general, which is the greatest 
duality on the physical side; and which is 
not altogether physical; but, more or less, 
divine and super-human, namely — the re- 
production of life. Life can not be pro- 
duced without life; and life is not human 
in its origin. Man is not the Giver of Life, 
only the transmitter. Two lives must blend 
to give us one, or more lives. A bit of male 
life — the sperm cell, must blend with a bit 
of female life — the germ cell, to produce 
a life. Now, the parties to this union are 

117 



each dual in their own personality. The 
female life contains both male and female 
life, only the female life is accentuated, or 
predominates, hence the female. The male 
life contains both male and female life, but 
the male life is accentuated, or predomi- 
nates, hence the male. Now, when these 
dual lives beget a life, there is a duality in 
the germ-cell (female) and a duality in the 
sperm-cell (male) ; and when these two 
combine, there is an excess in that com- 
bination of either male, or female life. If 
the excess of life, in the fecundated germ, 
is male, than the offspring will be a fe- 
male : and, if the excess, in the impregnate 
germ, is female, then the new life will be 
male. Gender goes by opposites; and, as 
there is dual life in each gender, that be- 
got, so there is dual life in each gender 
begotten ; and this double duality, in each 
personality, that begets ; and the blending 
of the two, to beget one life, makes a 
double, double duality of life in genera- 
tion ; and in this lies one of the chief secrets 
in the endless variation of life, from 
different parentage; and, also, though 
strange but true, from the same parentage. 

There is duality of mind, as well as 
body. Mentally men and women have 

118 



much in common in thought, action, and 
conduct; but there is a marked difference 
in the average male mind, and the average 
female mind, which needs no explanation, 
that is, it's an accepted fact. 

Again, it is not uncommon to find 
double personality in one individual, 
whether male, or female gender. Further- 
more, psycologists tell us, and it is now 
generally accepted, that humanity has a 
conscious and a subconscious mind ■ — a 
dual mind common to all of us. Verily, 
"The highest study of mankind is man," 
for we can not study man, in his entirety, 
without the study of God also. 

Now, that we have brought to your at- 
tention the duality of man both physically 
and mentally, let us return to the main 
line of our topic. 

As the mind in the body is dual, the 
mind outside of the body (the spirit- 
mind), we assume, is, also, dual. That is 
the logical conclusion, for how could it be 
otherwise, if the mind of man is like the 
mind of God; and it must be so, only dif- 
fering in scope and accuracy. Man's mind 
has its limitations, while God's mind is 
boundless. Man's mind does not always 
detect error, while God's mind, we believe, 

119 



is perfect and incapable of error; and 
though dual, active in every possible di- 
rection. And God must be the Mother- 
God, as well as the Father-God in thought, 
for thus He made us. 

God works by similars, duality, oppo- 
sites, dissimilars and variation, and thus 
man works. The universe, and all created 
things, and life in the natural world, reveal 
the mind of God, the Creator, as plain as 
A. B. C. — not, that we understand, it all; 
but we understand enough, and so much, 
that we can not deny and must admit, that 
super-human intelligence, wisdom, fore- 
thought and plan, adaption and fitness, are 
displayed everywhere — abundant evi- 
dence, and convincing evidence, of a first 
cause — the Master Mind, who evidently 
foresaw what he was doing from the be- 
ginning to the end, and brought law and 
order out of chaos; but the origin of such 
intelligence, wisdom and knowledge, who 
can fathom, who can have the least, or 
remotest conception — it is utterly impos- 
sible, for mankind to grasp. 

Man's mind, to a limited extent, vary- 
ing, of course, with men — (their intelli- 
gence, genius, intuition and their attitude 
toward God), is like the mind of God, or 

120 



may become so, more or less, imperfectly; 
for the workings of the mind of man are 
similar to the workings of the mind of 
God; for man, also, creates, plans, invents, 
reasons, and considers adaption and fit- 
ness. Man's creation of machines, that 
knit, that fly, that talk, that travel, below 
or above water; and many thousand other 
inventions and creations, are evidence, 
that his mind works, in creation, as does 
the so-called Divine mind. This fact can 
not be intelligently disputed. Only an 
ignoramus, or a fool, would fail to see the 
likeness between God and man. 

Now, if the disembodied, invisible mind 
of God, the Creator, can work everywhere 
in the universe unseen, does that not show, 
that the mind of man, though set in a vis- 
ible body, can continue to work after it 
has left the body? If God, from an invis- 
ible world, can act in this visible world 
(the earth) without an organized body, 
then why will not man do the same in re- 
verse order; for, if God's mind can act in- 
dependent of a perishable body of flesh and 
blood, so will man's mind continue to act, 
when he has laid down that body. It's a 
poor rule, that don't work both ways, 
whether we consider the natural, or the 
super-natural. 

121 



It is very wonderful how mind came 
to inhabit matter. Matter is dead; and 
dead matter was organized for life. This 
step in evolution no man understands — the 
step from dead to living matter, that is, 
organized matter. 

Progress is by evolution and variation. 
That is the way God works and that is the 
way man works; and though we under- 
stand not what life is; and though we un- 
derstand not how dead matter was made 
to live, we may clearly trace the steps in 
evolution from dead matter to the mind 
enthroned in that organism known as 
man. 

Matter came before organization, and 
matter was organized to accommodate 
and display life; and organized matter, 
possessing life, was capable, at first, of 
only three chief attributes, namely, func- 
tion, growth and reproduction. This is 
true of the vegetable kingdom. In the 
vegetable world we have life, a great varie- 
ty of life, variously organized, with vary- 
ing functions, conditions and periods of 
growth; and variation in the manner of 
reproduction, etc.; but nothing more. 
There is life, but no mind in the vegetable 

kingdom, but God's mind is manifest 
there. 

122 



Now, a step higher in the organization 
of dead matter, brings us to the animal 
kingdom. This kingdom is more or less 
dependent on the vegetable kingdom, 
which preceeded it. 

In the animal kingdom we have a high- 
er type of life, than in the vegetable king- 
dom; but, like the latter, it varies in or- 
ganization, in function, growth, and re- 
production; and the lower types of life, in 
this kingdom, vary but little, from life in 
the vegetable kingdom. But the animal 
kingdom possesses locomotion, greater 
and more complex organization, respira- 
tion, digestion, sensation and, above all, 
this one new thing is added, namely, in- 
stinct, so called, which is the fore-shadow- 
ing of mind; and God's mind is, also, mani- 
fest here. 

Life feeds on life; and the life in the 
animal kingdom feeds on life in the vege- 
table kingdom; and, also, feeds on life in 
its own kingdom, as the robin feeds on 
the worm, the cat on the mouse, or rat, and 
man eats fish, beef, poultry — all kinds of 
life. Life keeps life alive. However, 
broadly speaking, both kingdoms are 
much alike in the main characteristics. 

123 



There is life in the organized matter of 
both; and both functionate, grow and re- 
produce under varying conditions, with 

great variation in individual lives ; and, al- 
so, variation in classified groups, but what- 
ever these variations, or differences, there 
is only one great difference, in the main, 
which the animal kingdom possesses over 
the vegetable kingdom, and that is in- 
stinct. 

The vegetable kingdom has organiza- 
tion, life, function, growth, reproduction. 

The animal kingdom has organizaton, 
life, function, growth, reproduction and 

instinct. 

There is this about instinct. It is an 
impelling and controlling, embodied influ- 
ence on life, difficult to define, which seeks 
gratification, and impels the life to action 
along rational, intelligent lines; but it has 
its limitations and is exercised in special 
ways, largely according to organization 
and function, hence, as organization and 
function vary, the instinct varies. But 
there are animals, that display more or less 
intelligence, which seems to be a super- 
instinct, or a little more than ordinary in- 
stinct. They evidently learn from experi- 

124 



ence; but the animal kingdom, if we leave 
out man, has no soul center, that has intro- 
spection, no concern about this life or the 
future life, has no knowledge of death and 
is not capable of worship, experiment, edu- 
cation; and has no mentality, that can 
overcome instinct, no knowledge of right 
and wrong, no moral sense, no ambition 
for greater and better things — in a word, 
no mind; but the mind of God is more fully 
revealed in the animal kingdom, than in 
vegetable kingdom. 

The third step in the life of organized 
matter brings us to man; and this step is 
more than a step, for between organized 
animal matter and man, there is a great 
gulf — a wide distinction, a break in evolu- 
tion, which scientists can not account for. 
They have searched, far and wide, the uni- 
verse over, for the missing link; and have 
not found it. Organically, man belongs to 
the animal kingdom; but he is so far above 
and beyond any life below himself, — so 
superior and exalted in his make up, as a 
whole, that he is classed by himself; for 
in man, the acme of physical creation 
seems to have reached its climax. 

And what in man gives him this superi- 

125 



ority of life? The mind. And what is 
mind? We do not know. 

Man stands at the head of the animal 
kingdom. All life below him is subject 
to his will. He is the only life, that habit- 
ually walks in the erect position. He is 
the only life, that laughs and weeps, that 
suffers remorse, that has a conscience, and 
desires and hopes for immortal, eternal 
life. He is the only life, that talks, that has 
a language, that grows and unfolds, as 
thought unfolds in invention, knowledge, 
discovery, investigation, analyzation, ex- 
perimentation, truth, in fact, as the evolu- 
tion of the mind goes on. Verily, he is the 
Lord of the earth, in that he rules, to a 
large extent, all other life; and in that he 
meets conditions, more or less, perfectly, 
as they arise; and he has the power of 
adaption and preservation and creation, 
using the things that are; but his organic 
life has limitations and must die. Here 
he is helpless and ceases to rule. He can 
not conquer death. 

In death, what dies? When a vege- 
table dies the organic ceases to act, organi- 
zation breaks up, disintegration takes 
place, and matter reverts to its source. 
Carbon lets go its combination in the veg- 

126 



etable and returns to carbon; sodium, in 
the combination, is released and returns 
to sodium; and the same is true of all the 
elements in the vegetable, they all revert 
to where they were before they were taken 
up and embodied in the organic, function- 
ating life. 

If the vegetable is eaten, it becomes 
digested and eventually reverts to elemen- 
tary matter — its source. It may nourish, 
for a time, the life, that eats it — the carbon 
going to the fatty tissue because it already 
has carbon, is made up, in part, of it; and 
the nitrogen goes to the lean tissue, for it 
contains nitrogen; and the phosphorous 
goes to the nervous tissue, for it contains 
phosphorous and so on; but finally the veg- 
etable, though eaten, reverts to its source, 
that is, to elementary, dead matter. 

If the vegetable is pulled out of the 
ground and deprived of nourishment it 
dies. If it receives no water, or light, or 
air, it dies. Death is a cessation of func- 
tionation beyond the endurance of the 
plant. If the organic system of the plant 
can not act, that is, functionate, it dies. If 
it can not take on what it requires, and is 
unable to give off the waste in its tissue 
organization, it dies. Hence, death, in the 

127 



vegetable, results when its organs are 
damaged, or destroyed beyond repair; and 
the plant can not continue to function; or 
when nourishment, water, light and heat 
— one or more of these essentials to growth 
and function, are not supplied, or withheld, 
for a sufficiently long time, then death fol- 
lows;* and matter reverts to its source by 
disintegration. 

All that has been said of the vegetable, 
is more emphatically true of the animal. 
The vegetable gives off through its leaves 
gases. It does not eliminate waste like 
the animal; but it must eliminate, though 
in less degree, in its own way. When an 
animal dies there is cessation of function, 
disintegration of organization, and matter 
returns to its elements. 

Animals die daily. They are constant- 
ly taking on and giving off to live. They 
take on to supply the waste. They take 

on to build up and to sustain life; and they 
give off to save life; for, if they did not 



* The cactus-slab, the seed of wheat, and other 
seeds, will live many years, sometimes ages, deprived 
of most every thing essential to growth and repro- 
duction, and will germinate, when given a chance; but 
these are the germs of life, not the growing plant; and 
favorable conditions prolong their vitality. These may 
seem to be exceptions, but are not. 

128 



give off, they would die of self-poisoning.f 
Die from lack of elimination; die, for what 
is to be given off, is already dead — it has 
already become detached in the organism, 
and more or less broken up and in the 
process of elimination and disintegration, 
which, outside of the body, will continue 
until the limit is reached, if not reached 
before. Hence, death is not the horrible 
thing we think it is, for man, in part, dies 
daily; and complete death, organically, 
only differs from partial death, in degree. 
All that dies, in us, is our anatomy, the 
organic man. We die, as dies the veg- 
etable, as dies the animal. The part, that 
dies, is only the organic part, that returns 
earthward, to its source, to that which is 
already dead. 

Man possesses, broadly speaking, all 
that the two Kingdoms below him pos- 
sess, and more. 

The comparison is as follows: 

Vegetable Kingdom — organization, 
function, reproduction, life, death. 



t Hibernating cold and warm blooded animals 
seem to be an exception; but they are only partially 
so, as function of some sort, is active though feeble, 
irregular and curtailed — only so during the hibernating, 
period. 

129 



Animal Kingdom — organization, func- 
tion, reproduction, instinct, life, death. In- 
stinct is the new thing given to the animal 
kingdom, not possessed by the vegetable 
kingdom. 

Mankind, compared to the two pre- 
ceeding Kingdoms — has organization, 
function, reproduction, instinct, mind 
(soul-mind), life and death. Only the or- 
ganic matter dies in all three kingdoms; 
and mind, the soul-mind, is the special gift 
to man. 

This classification, condensed, reads as 
follows — 

In the Vegetable Kingdom there is — 
Organic Life. 

In the Animal Kingdom — Organic 
Life, and Instinct. 

In Man's Kingdom — Organic Life, In- 
stinct and Mind. 

To put it in another way — The veg- 
etable has function. The animal has 
function and instinct. Man has function, 
instinct and mind. 

Organic function is common in all 
three kingdoms; but mental function is 
only true of man. Here is another dual- 
ity; and duality appears in man only in 
the possession of instinct and mind. 

130 



We have set man aside, in a kingdom 
by himself, notwithstanding the fact, that 
organically, he belongs to the animal king- 
dom, because he possesses, what the other 
two kingdoms do not possess, namely — 
mind, self-consciousness and reason. 

It is wonderful, and profoundly" im- 
pressive, when you consider all the evolu- 
tion of creation on a progressive scale, 
from dead matter to living vegetable mat- 
ter; varying in many thousand ways in 
organization and function, followed by 
the evolution of the animal kingdom, 
which is a much higher scale of life; and 
which, also, varies in many thousand 
ways in organization and function along 
a continually increasing and unfolding 
plan of life, to which instinct was given, 
which varies, as life varies; and then, fin- 
ally, when organic evolution was brought 
to a climax, it was displayed in a new crea- 
tion — man, to whom was given a soul- 
mind. Think of it, all this vast array of 
evolution, wisely planned, on a progres- 
sive scale, that transformed dead matter 
into living matter, — life, life, and more 
life, varying, ever varying, but always 
ascending and expanding. 

Until the living woke the dead, 
Until soul-mind in man was bred. 

131 



Now, let me ask, would the All-Wise 
Creator have done all this to destroy it 
with death? To let man be blotted out 
and die, as dies the vegetable? A thou- 
sand times no, so says our aspirations, and 
desires, so says our heart-mind, our di- 
vine-mind. If it were otherwise, God 
would appear unreasonable and foolish. 

From the foregoing, it is evident, that, 
if evolution of life had stopped with the 
vegetable kingdom, there would be no 
knowledge of God. What does a cabbage, 
or a tree, know about God? 

Again, if the evolution of life had 
stopped with the animal kingdom, there 
would be no knowledge of God. What 
does a cow, an owl, the dog, the whale, an 
elephant, or the gorilla know about God? 

The ant, the spider and the bee, 
Know not God shapes their destiny. 

It is only when we come to man, 
that God is known — that we find life, in 
which the divine spark seeks and recog- 
nizes the Divine. Likes have affinity for 
likes. The spirit given, seeks the spirit 
giver; and the spirit-mind is the soul- 
mind. The Divine-mind is incarnated in 
the mind of man — as much as he is able to 
take on, or according to instinct, educa- 

132 



tion and mental genius, with which the 
life is endowed. 

Search everywhere, the whole earth round, 
In man, alone, is God's truth found. 

Herein we see God's dependence on 
mankind. We are dependent on God, 
yes; and he is dependent on us. Why, 
therefore, belittle man and exalt God? 
If we believe in and recognize God's de- 
pendence on us, then we are exalted, 
then knowing, that he is in accord with us 
and we are in accord with him, there, 
springs up in our mental heart, respon- 
siveness — admiration and love — all em- 
braced in the so called uplift of the soul. 

Only the chords, that are keyed alike, 
vibrate. The wireless message is only 
caught by the receiver, that is in tune 
with the transmitter; and like truth holds 
good in psycology — in the realm of mind, 
as in the realm of matter (physics). 
How perfectly simple, and natural is this 
gospel, when you behold and accept it. 
It's plain and easy to understand. Not so 
with the ready-made relgions. 

"Let each man think himself an act of God, 
His mind a thought, his life a breath of God." 

— Bailey's Festus. 
133 



"A sacred spark, created by his breath, 

The immortal mind of man his image bears ; 

A spirit living 'midst the forms of death, 

Oppressed, but not subdued, by mortal cares." 
Sir H. Davy — Written after a dangerous illness. 

We may gather somewhat of a new 
view of immortality from an old illustra- 
tion, namely, the silk-worm and the but- 
terfly. The silk-worm, we assume, and it's 
probably true, does not know why he is 
created, nor that his life is soon to under- 
go a physical transformation and pass out 
of existence, as a worm. If he did know, 
he might worry about it, and be in doubt, 
as to his future life. 

The silkworm is a complete organic 
life, that functionates according to its or- 
ganization and instinct. He has locomo- 
tion, eyesight, digestion, sensation, and 
is completely formed to live and to do ; and 
he takes care of himself and feeds and 
feeds and feeds and grows ; and then there 
comes a day, when he begins to form his 
own sepulcher — formed of pure white, 
soft, durable and costly material, that is, 
yards of silk web, lined with a hard, water- 
proof casing, into which he retires and 
seals the door — and alone, in that dark 
grave, his life, as a worm, goes out; and 
after a lapse of time, there emerges from 
this grave another life of different forma- 

134 



tion, organization and function. This life 
does not crawl as did the worm, for it has 
wings and can flit in the sunlight and 
among the beautiful flowers. This new 
life not only has wings, but it has a differ- 
ent body, different legs, different appetite 
and feeds on food the worm knew not of. 
It, also, has a new head and new instinct. 
The old life is blotted out — the worm life 
and instinct; and a new life with a new 
instinct is born; and this new instinct is 
the thing I wish to emphasize, for it is 
suggestive of psychic life, soul life. A rad- 
ical, wonderful change took place when 
the worm died and the butterfly lived — 
ushered into life to generate and give back 
the life, that was given him; but the most 
wonderful change was in instinct. 

All the worm was used up, trans- 
formed and given over to the butterfly, or 
silkworm fly, as nothing remains, but the 
empty grave, when the fly comes forth. 
But the new life is less bulky, less in size, 
and more attractive and active and agile 
than the worm, and lives a superior life. 
Now, all this physical transformation in 
life, death and life, is a fact known to us 
all; but do we understand it? No. We 
only know, that the worm lived, lost his 

135 



personality, so to speak, lost his identity 
and passed away — ceased to exist; and 
then emerged physically transformed into 
a very different form and life, than that he 
first possessed; and he knew it not. He 
feared not, he was conducted through, 
made over and translated, and lived again 
more glorious than before. 

Now, if the creator can do all this with 
a worm — in a corporal, physical way, us- 
ing material things, that we see and han- 
dle, will he not do as much for mankind? 
Will he not take care of the soul-mind, 
when the material body fails? Why fear? 
Why doubt? 

"That which is born of the flesh is 
flesh; and that which is born of the spirit 
is spirit." Remember likes go to likes. 
The earthly body — the organic, material 
body, goes back to its source, to earth; 
but the spiritual (the soul) does not go 
down, it goes to its source — the source of 
all spiritual life. Herein is shown one 
of our dualities — we have several. Re- 
member the worm-life did not stop with 
the worm. It went on until a life was 
evolved — that gave life ; and God does not 
let the soul, that longs for immortality, 
and the only soul on earth, that knows 
him, or ever thinks of him — that took 

136 



ages to incarcerate, go down and be blot- 
ted out forever, with the death of man's 
body, which can only live at best, for a 
few short, troublesome, eventful years. 

It is no more impossible, for God to 
save the soul, when the human body dies, 
than to save the fly, when the worm dies ; 
and we know, that he does that, for it 
takes place before our own eyes and we 
must believe in spite of the mystery — in 
spite of our not understanding how such 
things can be; and in spite of the fact, 
there is no one, that can explain such 
transformation to us. 

What keeps us alive? On what does 
our life depend? 

It takes two lives to beget a human 
life; and when that life begins on earth, 
why does it live? The common belief is 
that life possesses within itself the essen- 
tial agents and power to live; but that is 
not so. At birth, man would not live an 
hour, if it were not for what he takes on 
from without his organism. Organism 
means — collection of vitalized organs in 
one body. 

The fact, that man lives at all, is due 
chiefly to what he takes on from without, 
not what he possesses within. 

137 



About all the known powers, that exist 
in the universe, which powers man makes 
use of to operate his own mechanical in- 
ventions, motors, and machinery of all 
sorts, are necessary to operate his own 
body — which, on the organic side, is only 
a motor, a machine, which must function, 
operate and run because of essentials, 
which are supplied from without; and 
without this supply from without, life is 
impossible. What man creates in a me- 
chanical way, out of material things, God 
creates in a vital way, also, out of material 
things — matter; and both depend on the 
same powers to functionate, to be useful, 
to get results, either vital, or mechanical. 

We cannot live without air; and air 
originates outside of the human body and 
is used by man for power to run his own 
mechanical inventions; and God uses it to 
run his own organic invention — life; and 
when we die, the air does not die. 

We cannot live without water; and 
water originates outside the human body 
and is used by man, as power, to operate 
his own inventions; and God uses it to 
opperate his vitalized, organic invention — 
man, and when we die, water does not 
die. 

138 



We cannot live without electricity; and 
electricity is used by man as motor power. 
The brain is sometimes referred to as the 
human dynamo; and the nerves carry 
electric messages, or sensations, to and 
from the nerve centers, to all parts of the 
organism; but when we die, electricity 
does not die. 

We cannot live without light ; and light 
comes 95,000,000 miles distant to benefit 
us, to give us vision and sustain us; and 
light is sometimes mechanically used by 
man as power; but when we die, the light 
does not die. 

We cannot live without food; and 
man's food is organized material — life, 
from the animal and vegetable kingdoms, 
which is consumed as fuel, to keep man's 
organized, mechanical life going, to sup- 
ply it with heat, and nourishment, to off- 
set the waste and elimination, that is con- 
stantly going on. The same food can be 
used as fuel, to furnish heat for motor, or 
mechanical power; but wood and coal are 
less expensive; and the vegetable kingdom 
is the source of this organized material, 
so that the supply is abundant. 

The food taken by man is organic life 
— vegetable and animal. The organic life- 

139 



food dies, the human organic body, which 
it supplies, also, dies. Likes supply likes, 
likes go to likes, likes act alike. The food, 
for the organic, is, also, organic; and all 
that is organic decays. Man's food is 
from without, like all the other things on 
which his life depends; but food is the 
only thing from without necessary to the 
life of organic man, that dies. All the 
other enumerated agents, air, water, elec- 
tricity, etc., on which man's life depends, 
do not die, for they are not organic; and 
these forces, or powers, which man makes 
use of to operate his own mechanical de- 
vices, are all invisible, except food, as 
water becomes invisible as steam, or when 
it evaporates; and not one of these forces 
decay (except food) ; and we do not know 
the origin of any one of these invisible, or 
Visible forces, nor how the supply is kept 
up, except food, which is the dying supply. 

Man invents an electric motor. It is 
made up of parts; and is a perfect, organ- 
ization of inanimate parts; but it can not 
operate itself. It has no power within 
itself to function. Not until the electric 
current, from without, is turned on, is it a 
useful thing, a thing of action. It is much 
the same with our organized life. It's no 

140 



good — it's a failure, without the energiz- 
ing, invisible, God given, undying agents 
from without. Without these, man's or- 
ganization fails. He can not live a day. 

Man, organically considered, is a living 
machine. He is made up of organized 
parts. He must functionate, or die. The 
cessation of function is the beginning of 
destruction. If his lungs are consumed 
by consumption, he dies. If his kidneys 
undergo organic change, and sufficient de- 
struction of tissue takes place, he dies. If 
his heart is damaged by rheumatism, be- 
yond capable efficiency, he dies. If apo- 
plexy occurs in the brain; and the blood 
pressure acts too much on certain centers, 
he dies. If he does not properly eliminate 
deleterious material from his system, au- 
to-intoxication and poisoning takes place, 
and he dies. And so it goes — blood poi- 
soning, infection, disease germs (bacteria), 
to say nothing about accidents, kill him. 
There are so many things to cripple, stall, 
and put the human machine out of order, 
it's quite remarkable how we endure and 
continue to live; but it's the outer things, 
that give us life — or sustain life, more than 
the inner things. The inner things die; 
but the outer things never die. 

141 



The mechanical power devices of men 
must be kept in order to functionate. If 
they are not lubricated and fed they do 
not work well, or quit action. If the mech- 
anism becomes foul, worn, defective, or 
gets out of adjustment, the machinery 
fails to act. If the fuel is not good, in- 
adequate, or not supplied regularly in the 
right way, and in sufficient quantity, the 
mechanical organization will not continue 
to operate. All the mechanical devices of 
men are dead without the forces from 
without to set them going and keep them 
going; and these are, the undying, invis- 
ible forces, on which man's life depends, 
strange as it may seem, nevertheless, a 
truth, that cannot be denied, or set aside. 

There is not enough life, in life, to sus- 
tain life, without the organic, living, dying 
food from without, which feeds the living, 
dying, organic man; and this is not enough 
to keep life going. Life, also, requires to 
live, the other powers from without — the 
undying powers; and these do more for 
life, than life itself, though the powers re- 
ferred to are not regarded as life. Give life 
perfect and complete organization and 
health, with all its functions working nor- 
mally and at best, with food and all the 

142 



outside powers, or forces, supplied regu- 
larly, in sufficient quantity — pure and 
wholesome, without any disagreeable 
change; and life cannot endure long, for 
man's body, in spite of life, like all func- 
tionating machinery, must give out, for 
there is a limit to endurance; and, in time, 
it will wear out and cease to live, whether 
diseased, or not. 

The life in the vegetable is a mystery. 
Life in the animal is a mystery. Life in 
man is a mystery; and life, wherever you 
find it, is mysterious. 

The vegetable cannot live on the life 
within itself. It is dependent, for develop- 
ment and the continuation of life, on the 
powers from without. The same is true of 
animal life, hence, man is not far removed 
from the vegetable and animal; as to his 
higher and superior organization being 
able to overcome death of the body. He 
dies as dies the vegetable. He dies as 
dies the animal; and his organic life, while 
it lives, lives chiefly on, or because of the 
undying, mysterious forces from without; 
on which it lives, for a short span, and, 
without which, its own life, would not sur- 
vive over night; and these forces run wind- 

143 



mills, electric motors, and power plants of 
all sorts. 

Instinct is the greatest endowment 
given to the animal, the automatic attach- 
ment to life, that makes the animal supe- 
rior to the vegetable; and mind is the great 
gift to man, that exalts him above the ani- 
mal; and gives him a vision of his Creator. 

Man is the oracle of God; and, in all 
life, the only intelligent outlet, for the 
Divine life. 

In human life, there is no soul-life 
without the mind; and mind and soul are 
identical, or linked together so closely and 
intimately, as to be inseparable. 

There can be life without soul. The 
vegetable is dual. It has a root and a 
shoot. The one goes up, the other goes 
down. It has life, but no soul. 

The animal has dual life — body and 
instinct, and lives without a soul. Soul is 
not necessary to life on earth. 

Man has a triple combination of body, 
instinct and soul; but the body is not de- 
pendent on the soul for life; and the soul 
does not prevent death of the body. 

The human body is dual; and the soul- 
mind, like the body it inhabits, is, also, 
dual. It can be positive, or negative, it 

144 



can favor, or oppose, it can love, or hate, 
it can be honest, or dishonest, evil or good, 
etc. 

The soul is the man at the wheel. The 
automobile has an engine and various 
mechanical parts, which makes It a com- 
plete unit for service; but it has no power 
in and of itself to function. The power is 
in the vaporized gasoline and electric 
spark, which fires the vapor. They ener- 
gize the automobile and set it going; but 
it cannot direct and guide itself. There 
must be a man at the wheel. He is the 
soul that runs the auto, slow or fast, back- 
ward or forward, safely or unsafely. He 
may give it a long run, or a short run. He 
may damage the machine in the way he 
cares for and runs it, or he may wreck it. 
And thus the soul may run the human 
body. It dominates, controls, directs, and 
operates the life of man on earth. The 
soul is at the wheel of the organic, func- 
tionating, mechanical body of man. The 
soul, through the will-power drives the 
body and has complete control of it, as 
to the work performed and as to its speed, 
conduct and character. 

The energetic soul-mind would soon 
tire out and kill the body, were it not for 

145 



sleep, when the soul leaves the body, or 
becomes dormant, or latent; and the body- 
rests and recovers its fatigue and exhaus- 
tion. But the instant sleep is over, the 
soul is at the wheel of life again; and it 
runs the body wisely and well, or into 
trouble and disaster. A man is never bet- 
ter than his soul. 

"Were I so tall to reach the pole, 
Or grasp the ocean with my span, 

I must be measur'd by my soul ; 

The mind's the standard of the man." 

Watts — False Greatness. 

In life we find variation in organiza- 
tion and function in both kingdoms — veg- 
etable and animal. In the animal king- 
dom, we find variation in instinct; and in 
man, variation in soul-mind. It is this 
variation, that accounts for progress in the 
world. 

The soul-mind, operates the organic, 
living, dying bodies of mankind through 
thought and will; and the body is respon- 
sive to the soul; but the endless variation 
in soul-minds accounts for scientific dis- 
coveries, invention, creation and the rev- 
elation of truth, that is steadily unfolding 
through the ages, as generations come 
and go. 

The body of man has reached its climax 

146 



of development. It is all that it ever will 
be; but the soul of man is yet young, and 
will continue to develop, in this life, and in 
the life to come. 

At birth the human babe has abundant 
organic life and instinct, but no soul, un- 
less it be latent, hidden and inactive. 
Baby sleeps and eats, but has no mind. If 
it was born with a soul-mind its growth 
would be stunted; and the soul-life-force 
would kill the body — the organic life- 
force. 

The involuntary brain and nervous 
system are active before birth and in full 
force at birth; but the voluntary, is not 
developed at birth; and the voluntary 
nervous system does not act rationally 
until the voluntary brain directs its ac- 
tion. The voluntary man becomes the 
Good Samaritan, or the one, who passes 
by on the other side; the righteous or 
the unrighteous devotee; the good or the 
evil spirit; or, to use a figure of speech, 
angel or devil. Herein is revealed an- 
other, and the most wonderful duality of 
man, for the soul-mind can not enter the 
voluntary brain any faster than it devel- 
ops; and, if it never develops, the soul- 
mind is shut out of that life, or can only 

147 



functionate in a restricted, irregular and 
unrational way, as in the natural born 
fool. The soul is restricted and can not 
function normally in an undeveloped, ab- 
normal, or diseased brain, hence mental 
weakness, foolishness, or insanity. The 
fault is not with the soul, but with the in- 
strument. Restore the diseased brain to 
health, and the soul will again function 
rationally — sanely. We do not treat the 
soul mechanically, or medicinally, we treat 
the instrument. Soul can only be treated 
by Soul. We do not breed the soul, we 
breed the instrument. The instrument 
with only three strings, will not give the 
music of an instrument of fiv& strings; and 
a defective, imperfect, or unsound body, 
will discord, curtail, or spoil the music of 
the soul. Herein is a revelation with 
plenty of room for expansion. On the 
other hand, if the voluntary part of the 
brain is of a superior order and develops 
normally, and the soul-mind is endowed 
with special traits of genius, or intuition, 
the outcome of the soul-life is far beyond 
and above the ordinary life. 

The instrument may be defective, but 
not the soul. The soul would functionate, 
if it could; and death of the entire body 

148 



(organism) is death of the instrument 
only, not death of the soul. 

You may know a man's soul by the way 
he drives his body. Conduct reveals the 
soul and fixes character. The unseen is 
revealed in the seen. Straws shows which 
way the wind blows, so does the weather- 
vane; and even the little ripples of water 
on the surface of the otherwise placid 
pond, reveal the direction of the unseen 
wind. I believe, that most, if not all of the 
unseen, is revealed in the seen, if we only 
could discover it; and so is the soul. 

How did we come to possess this double 
brain and nervous system — voluntary and 
involuntary? It was not our own creation. 
We did not make it, or find it ourselves, 
hence, from where did it come, if not from 
a super-human force — God the Creator. 

What is the soul of man? We don't 
know. The nearest we can come with one 
word, is life, with two words — eternal life. 
To venture a more extensive definition, 
let us say — soul is the adynamic, invisible, 
undying power from without the human 
organism, that dwells with man on earth 
during the life of the body; and which 
controls and guides the life of man, for 
better or for worse, until death of the body 

149 



severs the union; and then, the undying- 
soul, set free, lives on and on forever. The 
soul-mind at death of the organic man, 
becomes spirit-mind. It's life, life, life un- 
dying, immortal, eternal life. God, who 
made possible soul-life on earth, would 
not destroy that life with the death of the 
body, which so soon reaches its final 
doom and destruction and decay, so far as 
each individual, corporeal life is concerned. 
No, that would be folly. God, it is logical 
to assume, does not start anything so no- 
ble, intelligent, ingenious, emotional and 
devotional, as the life of man, with a soul 
akin to the soul of God, and not complete 
its course; but let it go out in its earthly 
evolution, like a falling star into the black- 
ness of darkness forever. No, likes go to 
likes; and, if God has eternal life, so does 
the spirit-mind of man. If God is undying 
life, then the spirit-life of man is undying 
also. Remember all the powers from with- 
out the human body, that sustain, our 
temporal life, are undying, except the or- 
ganic, dying food, that feeds the organic, 
dying body; and the soul of man is su- 
perior to all these exterior, undying pow- 
ers; for it was life, before it came to life in 
man; and it will continue, as life, after its 
earthly dwelling place is destroyed. You 

150 



cannot destroy life itself — the vital power 
and spark from without the human organ- 
ism, any more than you can destroy air, 
water and light. Spirit-life is undying, if 
God is undying. Only organic things die. 
Life is not organic. Life knows no death. 

Spirit-life — invisible, undying, inor- 
ganic, adynamic life, dwells with the vis- 
ible, organic, dynamic, dying life, so long 
as the organic life lives. There can be life 
without soul, but there cannot be soul 
without life. Spirit is life, which is inde- 
pendent of matter. If that is not so, then 
there is no eternal life and no God. When 
a soul becomes incarcerated, it is fixed dur- 
ing the life of the organism. It does not 
travel about; and God could not be God, 
if he was not more than one soul in one 
body. Soul-life is one thing, organic life 
is another thing. Do not confound the 
two. They are unlike, distinct, and separ- 
ate, though both, for a time, are in the 
same body. Soul-life is no more like or- 
ganic life, than light is like the eye. Light 
is from without the eye; and the spirit- 
soul, the soul-light in man, is also, from 
without the body — both are undying pow- 
ers. Herein we see again the dual life in 
man. 

151 



You find God when you find your soul, 
For they are like in kind. 
It's true today, as true of old — 
Soul is immortal mind. 

Some people must be shown; but the 
great majority of real things can not be 
shown; and we repeat — the unseen forces 
are the greatest forces — gravitation, elec- 
tricity, vital and atomic forces and others. 

Nobody doubts the fact of the radio 
message, which travels unseen at the rate 
of about 186,300 miles per second; and it 
could not be seen, if its speed was as slow 
as the speed of a turtle. 

The union of atoms and the disunion 
of atoms, especially the latter, is evidence 
of great force. Our explosives, some of 
which are very powerful, exert that pow- 
er, heat and light, when the atoms are in- 
stantaneously liberated, or set free from 
their combination. 

The unseen forces, which we under- 
stand, in part, and know about, show how 
the unseen forces, which we do not under- 
stand and know scarcely nothing about, 
are possible. 

Adaptation, cause and effect, the fit- 
ness of things, the dependence of one 
thing on another, the revelation of intelli- 
gence and wisdom everywhere in nature 

152 



and in life, reveal a supreme, master-mind 
back of all the seen and unseen and per- 
vading it all; and this we call spirit, this 
we call God. Call it what you will, it's 
there; and spirit-mind is the greatest un- 
seen force of all, for it's back of all; and 
among the living seen and unseen things, 
man is the most God-like; and that is why 
— because of his likeness to God, he may 
know God; and the more like God he is, or 
becomes, the more he knows God. 

There must be a mind to know a mind, 
there must be a soul to know a soul, for 
only likes, that know, can know. And, if 
God hears and answers prayer (all those 
who pray think he does), then there is com- 
munication between this world and the 
next; and Sir Oliver Lodge is rational and 
in accord with all who pray; only he af- 
firms, that disembodied minds, may, also, 
like God, communicate with minds on 
earth — and, if the disembodied mind of 
God can do that, why not the disembodied 
mind of man; God, in all probability, is 
as much on earth as elsewhere; and the 
souls of the departed may dwell among us. 

We find no mind in pumpkin vine, 
We find no mind elsewhere, 
Until we come to man designed, 
By God's mind, everywhere. 

153 



It's in the stars and in the sea, 
And everywhere displayed; 
But disembodied and unseen 
Until mankind was made. 

O mind of God, and mind of Man ! 
It's mind, that mind doth know, 
Hence, without man's mind, understand, 
God's mind could not be known. 

O mind of God and mind of man ! 
Their likeness makes them blend, 
For only mind can understand 
The mind, that has no end. 

Oh little mind, that dwells on earth ! 
Your stay is for brief years ; 
But death, though dark, is but a birth; 
And then, God's life is yours. 

It's life, undying life, that lifts 
The Soul out of the clay ; 
And death, but consummates the gift 
Of immortality.* 

Did you ever consider your own na- 
tivity — your condition before and after 
birth; and the wonderful change, that 
takes place, in organic life, at birth? Prior 

to birth you are in your chrysalis stage 
of life. You have eyes, but you do not 

see. You have ears, but you do not hear. 

You have kidneys, but they do not act. 

You have digestive organs, but you do 

not digest. You have lungs, but you 

do not breathe. If you did breathe, you 



* The title of this poem, by the author, is — Mind 
of God and Mind of Man. 

154 



would drown yourself, for you are living 
in a globe of water, which is the very best 
medium possible for your welfare, prior 
to birth, and of great assistance to normal 
labor at birth. 

The Creator planned all this; and he 
made ready, that is, prepared you, for the 
change in your life, which would take place 
at birth; and, what you are before birth, 
and what you are after birth, are most 
wonderful; and clearly show premedita- 
tion and fore-thought, inventive genius 
and wisdom on the part of the Creator: 
for every detail is attended to as carefully 
as you, yourself, would prepare for a diffi- 
cult and hazardous journey. 

Think of it — the eyes are made in the 
dark, but they are perfect optical instru- 
ments, for use in another state of exist- 
ence, which is to come, when we are ush- 
ered into light. 

The lungs are correctly and perfectly 
formed for breathing air, where there is 
no air; and, when completed, tucked aside, 
left in a compacted and collapsed state, 
ready for use, when we are brought into 
a new world, where voices and music float 
on the vibrant air; and we must breathe 

155 



that air, through the heretofore inactive 
lungs, or die. 

Surprising, as it may seem to the un- 
informed, the circulation of the blood 
through the heart changes in a surpris- 
ingly short time. If this fails, we get blue 
babies, and death follows. At birth, the 
blood discontinues its circulation through 
the navel; and the opening in the heart, 
necessary before birth, is closed, and the 
blood from the heart is now sent to the 
lungs for air and back to the heart, before 
going into general circulation. 

The digestive tract, with its accessory 
organs, is made ready for future use, 
where there is no food, that can be taken 
into it; and hence the salivary glands, the 
stomach, with its gastric juice, the liver 
and pancrease, are of no use — inactive, 
until there comes a day when we are fed 
in another way; than, through that long 
and slender chord — the vital highway, that 
connects mother and child, through which 
air and nourishment from the placenta are 
conveyed to you while yet unborn, in the 
womb-cocoon stage of your life; and then, 
at birth, the whole thing changes. The old 
plan of life is given up and the new plan 
of life is taken on. Wonderful, beyond 

156 



words! Understandable? Yes and no. 
We understand much; but there is much 
more that we do not understand; but we 
see enough to know, that only God could 
do these things. 

There is so much to life prior to birth; 
and so much in the radical change, that 
takes place in life at birth; and so much 
to life in the development of soul-mind, 
that no man can fathom, or embrace it all, 
simply behold, understand a little, and 
wonder how all these things are possible. 

Birth of the body is like coming from 
one world to another ; and we are made 
ready for it, and we know it not. We come 
without our knowledge or consent. It's 
a long time after birth before we know 
anything about our nativity. But the great 
point I wish to convey is the preparedness 
of our organic life, for the advent into the 
present life; and that it was well and wisely 
planned and ingeniously and safely car- 
ried out. And when the change did come, 
all the inactive, living organs were brought 
into play, and sustained, with one excep- 
tion, by the undying, energizing, ethereal, 
seen and unseen powers, from without our 
corporal, organic self. 

Now the changes, that take place, when 

157 



the organic life and the spiritual life sep- 
arates, in after years, because of the death 
of the body, in all probability, are just as 
completely thought out, premeditated and 
planned, as the change from the prenatal 
state to the natal state; and, if so, death 
of the body is not death of the soul; and 
the change, from this life to the future life, 
is no greater, or more radical, than those, 
which took place when you were born, but 
differ in kind. 

Why is it, that with so much revelation 
of truth in nature and in life, we do 
not learn to discern the Divine life every- 
where, both without and within ourselves; 
and place our confidence and faith in what 
He is doing for us, for when we grasp our 
oneness with the Source of Life, we feel, 
that we too, are eternal? 

One of the best evidences of an ex- 
panding, growing soul-mind, is, that it has 
not only revelation, but inspiration. I am 
a very ordinary man; but I must confess, 
that I, now and then, have inspirations; 
and there are many other men and women 
in the world, who have had the same ex- 
perience. 

I recall an inspiration, that came to me, 
unexpectedly (and that's the way inspira- 

158 



tions come) while in charge of a confine- 
ment case. The labor was a regular, nor- 
mal labor and all went well. When the 
baby was born, I placed it on a small, 
woolen blanket, spread out on the bed- 
side, which was to be its swaddling 
clothes. The baby was healthy, and well 
developed, bui it did not breathe. There 
it lay. It did not cry, it did not breathe; 
but it was rosy, and as much alive as any 
babe, that was ever born. It was in this 
world, where it had arrived in perfect con- 
dition, but it did not use its lungs. It did 
not take on air, as you and I make use of 
it; but life was perfect. 

In the little while, that this condition 
lasted, I had a revelation of how life goes 
on prior to birth; and it seems to me, that 
I was a bit nearer to God, than I had been 
before. I could not wait long. The pla- 
centa (after birth) was still in tack (at- 
tached to the mother) ; and the supply of 
air was still being conveyed from mother 
to child, through the unibilical chord. I 
pinched the cord and cut off the prenatal 
circulation and immediately the babe took 
its first breath of air and cried; and I 
turned it over to the nurse. 

Life does not begin with the first 

159 



breath, and life does not end with the last 
breath. 

The march, from the cradle to the 
grave, has been going on for many ages 
and will continue for countless ages more. 
The young grow old. Generations come 
and go. Across the stage of life, the great 
procession of humanity goes marching on, 
the ranks are ever being filled, as fast as 
they are depleted, we can not retrace our 
steps — none turn backward, and the great 
caravan moves on unceasingly, as of old, 
with all its joys and sorrows, with all its 
burdens and cares, with all its sins and 

errors, with all its faith and prayers. 

The living tread the paths their dead 
sires trod. 

"O Time and Change ! — with hair as gray 
As was my sire's that winter day, 
How strange it seems, with so much gone 
Of life and love, to still live on ! 
Ah, brother ! only I and thou 
Are left of all that circle now, — 
The dear home faces whereupon 
That fitful firelight paled and shone. 
Henceforward, listen as we will, 
The voices of that hearth are still ; 
Look where we may, the wide earth o'er, 
Those lighted faces smile no more. 
We tread the paths their feet have worn, 
We sit beneath their orchard-trees, 
We hear, like them, the hum of bees 
160 



Blossom 
days and 
Wedding 
days. 

142 



And rustle of the bladed corn ; 

We turn the paees, that they read, 

Their written words we linger o'er ; 

But in the sun they cast no shade, 

No voice is heard, no sign is made, 

No step is on the conscious floor ! 

Yet Love will dream, and Faith will trust, 

(Since He who knows our need is just,) 

That somehow, somewhere, meet we must. 

Alas for him who never sees, 

The stars shine through his cypress trees! 

Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, 

Nor looks to see the breaking day 

Across the mournful marbles play ! 

Who hath not learned, in hours of faith, 

The truth to flesh and sense unknown, 

That life is ever lord of Death, 

And Love can never lose its own I" 

— Whitiier, Snow Bound. 



In floral life, the blossom-days are the 
wedding days. Behold the beauty and the 
fragrance, the brilliant display, the vary- 
ing dates and costumes, the winged at- 
tendance — the humming birds, the busy 
bees and the gorgeous butterflies; and 
then, there is, also, the honey-dew, am- 
brosial feast. Oh how wonderful, how de- 
lightful is all this! 



New Life I can remember when there was no po- 

cn Earth. tato bug, destructive to the potato plant; 

143 no boll-weevil, destructive to the cotton 

crop; and we all can remember, when 

161 



there was no flu germ, so destructive to 
human life. We know not, how these new, 
undesirable creations of life, come to earth; 
but we do know how life, which benefits 
and exalts mankind, comes to earth, name- 
ly, — it is thought. "As a man thinketh," 
so is he. If we think good thoughts, we 
are good. If we think bad thoughts, we 
are bad. If we think creatively, we create. 
If we think destructively, we destroy. 

And then, new life, also comes by birth, 
and always come through the "mother of 
men," that precious, sweet, incarnation of 
love. Thus Christ was born, who, so many 
people believe to be the Saviour of the 
World; and so many more do not so re- 
gard him. And from the same source — 
the mother of men, came the Apostles, and 
all the great men and women, who have 
lived and died, and all those of the present 
time, and all those yet to come must enter 
this world by way of the homemaker, the 
comforter, the dearest life on earth; and 
the only inlet for life on earth — that thinks 
that has the power of thought; and, 
through thought and action, shapes the 
destiny of mankind. 

The nearest God-like life on earth is 
human life; and mankind, through 

162 



thought, may keep in touch with the Giver 
of thought; and, by so doing, will do bet- 
ter thinking and enjoy better living. 
Don't forget, that the best, that comes to 
earth, comes through the best, that earth 
can give; and that is woman — the mother 
of men. 



Reason must be original and creative 
to be philosophic; and must reveal, or at- 
tempt to reveal, the unknown. 

True philosophy must make clear the 
causes of phenomena, or advance plausi- 
ble theory. 

145 There is nothing, that man does, which 

is not subject to criticism; but criticism 
may be, for or against, favorable or unfa- 
vorable. 



The most variable thing in creation is 
life. 



My Visit The nearest I got to the great world 

to the war, was Newport News, Va. I went 

down there in August, 1918, while the 
greatest heat-wave known for many years 
was on, to visit my son, who was a 
Lieutenant in the army, stationed at Camp 
Stewart, just prior to his departure for 

163 



France. There were a number of camps 
in this locality, and soldiers were to be seen 
everywhere, on the streets and in public 
places; and there was so much saluting by 
officers and those in lower rank, that I got 
the habit and was called down. 

The bugle call was heard night and 
morning; and there was great activity 
both on land and in the spacious harbor of 
Chesapeake Bay. Here, the warships, that 
were anchored off shore, awaiting the time 
of embarkation of United States troops, 
made a profound impression on me. These 
great floating monsters could, also, be seen 
maneuvering, from time to time, the on- 
looker not knowing for what purpose. 

Here, I got my first vivid impression of 
the meaning of camouflage. The stripes, 
the saw teeth, the confusion and perplexity 
of light color and design, peculiar mark- 
ings of the warships, that appeared more 
like a Japanese puzzle, than like sea-going 
vessels, showed how deception is practiced 
in war; and that things are not what they 
seem. Of course, camouflage is common 
in life; and war only accentuates decep- 
tion, which has been practiced since the 
human race began. 

I visited the officer's quarters, at Camp 

164 



Stewart, and took lunch with them; and 
was impressed with the plain, board tables 
and benches for seats, the non-breakable, 
metallic lunch set, which is very compact 
and very simple. There isn't any luxury 
in war, either at the mess or elsewhere. It 
is stern, sober, exact, severe, but spectacu- 
lar. 

There was not a tree in Camp Stewart, 
not a bit of grass anywhere, only un- 
painted, plain, board buildings ; and a great 
expanse of bare ground, surrounded by a 
high board fence to keep the men in and 
the chickens out. The mid-day sun poured 
down, hot enough to cook an egg (hardly) 
and the soldiers were wet with perspira- 
tion; and everybody mopped their faces, 
and there was not enough ice for the 
camps, hotels and domestic use, as the de- 
mand was greater than the supply. 

While waiting outside the officers' 
quarters, I heard some melodious strains, 
coming from another part of the camp, 
and my curiosity tempted me to go for- 
ward and discover the source of the music; 
but I had not gone far, before a soldier on 
guard exclaimed — "You can't pass this 
gun, sir!" He said nothing about himself, 

165 



League of 
Nations. 
The Peace 
of the 
World. 

148 



in fact, the gun was more impressive, and 
I did not pass it. 

I see no joy in a soldier's life. I see 
nothing in war, over which to glory. 

The peace of the world, that is a Uto- 
pian dream, much desired, but impossible 
so long as Governmental powers disregard 
the Golden Rule; and are always conniv- 
ing how to get the best of each other; and 
how to get more territory and more peo- 
ple in their control. 

The League of Nations, for peace, 
must take in all the powers. on terms of 
justice and right; on grounds of common 
interest; and must be a harmonious body 
of nations; but what the world war did 
was to stir up the Hornets Nest of Europe, 
unsettle nations all over the entire earth, 
create enormous national debts, and put 
the financial world on the verge of ruin. 
In the face of such deplorable world wide 
conditions, the peace of nations is impos- 
sible; and what will probably result is par- 
tial league of powers — the strong powers 
combining against the weak and maintain- 
ing peace because of their strength; and, 
if need be, by force of arms. There were 
leagues of nations before the World War; 
and there will be Leagues of Nations fol- 

166 



lowing the world war; but this does not 
make lasting peace. Only an iron hand, 
by combined powers, will keep and pre- 
serve order; when there is so much ani- 
mosity and dissatisfaction in Turkey, Aus- 
tria, Germany, Russia and a lot of minor 
powers, that have been emptied out and 
more or less exhausted; but which boil 
inwardly with resentment. The condi- 
tions following the world war are vastly 
worse, than the conditions, that preceded 
the world war; and the forcing of helpless 
nations into a compact against their wills, 
will not be a League of Peace Loving 
Nations. 

It seems strange, that any nation can 
go into war with unselfish intent, like a 
Ministering Angel of Mercy, with no ter- 
ritorial desire, with no desire of indem- 
nity, solely for the good of mankind and 
the peace of the world; and why should 
such angelic goodness, stoop to earth to 
soil its wings with the depravity of war? 

The only peace, that can follow be- 
tween man and man, or betwen nations, 
is that which believes in mercv, fair deal- 
ing, justice, honesty, truth and right — all 
of a high order — all strictly moral and 
ethical — all Divine. But how can hatred, 

167 



Drama of 
Life. 

149 



brutality and war be regarded as Divine? 
How can disease, corruption and sickness, 
of all sorts, be regarded as Divine? 

Wars always have been; and wars will 
continue throughout all time, unless we 
get a Heaven on earth; and who believes 
such blessedness possible? The trouble is 
generations come and go; and each gen- 
eration starts life afresh, with no experi- 
ence, unlearned and ignorant; and with 
more or less human depravity, due to the 
animal instinct in man. And then, there 
is racial differences, climatic, social, relig- 
ious, political, momentary and govern- 
mental differences; and differences, if too 
divergent, do not make a durable, practi- 
cal, compact, or league; but an incoherent 
body, that will soon go to pieces, if formed. 

A League of Nations, if comprehen- 
sive, is a League of Coercion — the big 
toads in the puddle, holding the little toad 
in subjection, because the big, are strong 
and the little, are weak. 



What a little part any one man plays 
in the revolving years, that run on into 
many thousand centuries, for his days are 
so soon numbered; and then he is out of 
the race, in time and place, forever. 

168 



Those 

Sensitive 

Persons. 

151 



The foregoing is a fact well known to 
us all; but, nevertheless, all of us, who are 
normal, healthy and happy, dislike to be 
blotted out — to become extinct, even 
though we are only one drop in the great, 
continous, repeating drama of life. The 
actors drop out; but the play goes on. 



150 Did you ever chase a big word through 

the dictionary? If you did, you em 
where you began. 



It's what you think, or do, that makes 
you happy, or unhappy. Trivial things 
make some people happy, and trivial 
things make them unhappy; so these sen- 
sitive persons worry much, and grieve 
much over what they consider as slights. 
Someone has not conformed to their stan- 
dards of how they should be treated; or 
passed them by unnoticed, or has done 
this, that, or the other thing, that has 
offended them. These human thermome- 
ters are always showing changes in tem- 
perature and temper; and most of the time, 
their sky is over-cast and storms threaten. 
They are the personification of April 
weather — fickle, changeable, damp and 
dreary; and the weather changes sudden- 
ly; and unexpectedly the blue sky takes 

169 



on a somber hue. They cross bridges be- 
fore they get to them, borrow much troub- 
le, that would never come, if they let it 
alone; and do and say much, that they are 
sorry for afterward. 

The most charitable we can be, with 
these peculiar characters, is to say, that 
they inherited their sordid disposition, or 
got the habit of wrong thinking. There 
is so much in this life, that is pleasant and 
cheerful to think about, why think about 
the unpleasant and uncheerful things un- 
less it is unavoidable; but turn away from 
that line of thought, when it comes, as 
soon as possible, for it's morbid, degrading 
and makes you miserable, also, those about 
you. 

If healthy, it's so easy to be happy, by 
thinking of the cheerful things; and by 
trying to make others happy and cheerful 
and contented. 

The unpleasant things will not enter 
your soul-mind, if you keep it full of the 
joy, comforts and good cheer of life; and, 
when your own life is sunny, you make 
all about you radiant and cheerful. 

It's impossible to be on both sides of 
a cloud at one and the same time. If you 
are on the sunny side, you don't see the 

170 



clouds, at least, they do not annoy you; 
but it's easy to have an eclipse and smudge 
the sunshine in your soul-mind, by letting 
yourself down to the low level and dark 
corners of gossip, envy, jealousy, petty 
grievances, that are largely false, that is, 
of your own conception; and, then follows 
nagging and back-biting, and you make 
yourself the miserable creature that you 
are. Your life is what your thoughts are. 
Like begets like. 

"Laugh and the world laughs with you," 
If sour, you sour life's cream ; 
And that, which gladdens heart of youth, 
Will keep the soul of age more green. 

We get, what we impart of cheer, 

You make the thorns, you get the sting ; 

And, if we find life is severe, 

We fail in Love's sweet comforting. 



Similars If you were asked whether there were 

and more similars, or opposites in Nature, what 

Opposites. would you say? I would say more simi- 
152 lars; but opposites are always, or most 
always, found somewhere. And, when 
you find an opposite, it may be one oppo- 
site, or many; but opposites, as a rule, are 
not as numerous as similars. If opposites 
preponderated, the similars would be over- 
powered, blotted out, or so much opposed, 

171 



as not to progress in evolution. In life, 
opposites stimulate and strengthen evolu- 
tion, if not too numerous and powerful. 
Hence, similars and opposites appear on 
the stage of nature, as one of the acts in 
the Survival of the Fittest; and the simi- 
lars are most always the fittest, as shown 
in contest with the opposites. 

Opposites play a part in the develop- 
ment of the latent forces in Nature and in 
man; but the big thing in Nature and in 
life, is similars. 

153 There is reverse and opposites in 

mechanics, in all nature and in life. You 
can reverse an engine and run it back- 
ward; and human life is run backward or 
forward. Running backward may put you 
down and out. Running forward is haz- 
ardous, but far more safe. "Safety First" 
is a good motto, in the running of a life, as 
in the running of a railroad. 

Two ways, limbs branch, that's true of growth; 
But man must choose, he can't do both. 

*54 Choosing 

Making choice is choosing, 
A most important act. 
Choosing is refusing, 
And that requires tact. 

172 



At least, there must be two 
To make a choice between ; 
And it is up to you, 
As to a reigning Queen. 

Choosing brings decision. 
It comes to us each day, 
It comes in still, small voice, 
It comes in bold display. 

A step and we must chose, 
Our judgment is at stake; 
And, if we err, we lose, 
Ah, what strange tracks we make ! 

We meet dividing ways, 
It's up to us to choose, 
Oh, for an onward gaze! 
To us, that is refused. 

Which course will bring success, 
And which a sad regret? 
It's dark, I must confess, 
And I am choosing yet. 

Why falter? You must act. 
Go bravely on — fear not! 
Courage will help each act, 
Hope, ponder, cast your lot! 

173 



Decision brings relief, 
After the die is cast, 
It may, also, bring grief; 
But sorrow seldom lasts. 

Choose wisely, so they say, 
But whence comes our wisdom? 
Light brings the dawn of day, 
Only light brings wisdom. 

Choosing, or refusing, 
That's life at every turn, 
We're making, or losing, 
And so we live and learn. 

Through knowledge we advance, 
We gain a little light; 
But still we must take chance 
In future's starless night. 

We do not choose our death, 
We do not choose our birth; 
But we choose all that's left, 
Except what comes, on earth. 

Choosing is refusing, 
Ah, the unspoken voice ! 
It's doing, or undoing, 
According to our choice. 

174 



Acting, ever acting, 
We know not what is best, 
Choosing, ever choosing, 
Until our final rest. 

Ah, who can know the end, 
When the way is hidden? 
We act, and then we mend — 
So much comes unbidden. 

I knew a man*, that prayed, 
In making up his mind; 
And then, the choice he made 
Was regarded Divine. 

Oh, pilgrim of the night ! 
Treading through earth's span, 
I trust you'll have some light, 
Enough to see God's hand. 



* The author's father — Hon. George Graham 
Decker. The prefix to his name came when he was 
elected to the New York State Legislature. Father 
prayed daily. Took all his troubles to the Lord and 
made an honest endeavor to live a conscientious life. 
There was no question about his sincerity and religious 
faith. 

175 



155 Dreamland 

Dreams are so enchanting, 

They set the mind arranting, 

On all things worth the granting. 

The optimistic dream, 
Is like a radiant beam, 
Where flowers bloom unseen. 

Our life, without a dream, 
Like garment, without seam, 
Is lean, yea, very lean. 

Dream is inspiration, 
It wakes imagination, 
And leads to exultation. 

Dreamland is ever young, 
It's full of songs unsung, 
And love and hope begun; 

The castles built in air, 
The flitting fairies, fair, 
Are not all bubbles bare; 

But parables of seeds; 

The beginning of great deeds; 

Forces moulded to our needs. 

Oh sweet, happy dreamland! 
In step, with music of thy band, 
We mount the sinking sand. 
176 



156 The Unspoken Language 

There is an unspoken language, 
Known all over the earth, 
By the cultured and the savage — 
Long unknown after birth. 

But when our latent powers wake, 
When maiden beauty dawns, 
When young men linger at the gate, 
For that dear, not a faun — 

When clear eyes speak, as no one can, 
And faces redder glow, 
Then you begin to understand 
The love you did not know. 

And this unspoken language speaks, 
In thoughts and deeds and sighs. 
It lifts your soul to lofty peaks, 
Or darken the blue skies. 

It stirs, as nothing else will stir, 
The inmost heart of man. 
Your course in life, it oft may swerve, 
Perhaps, to distant land. 

Ah, who can tell, what may befall 
Those who, speak not a word; 
But feel the tug, that pulls us all, 
When love, true love is heard? 

177 



157 



When Down and Out 



Turn to the past, oh no, it's cast 

Eternal as the hills. 

We mould each day, life's plastic 
clay — 

We mould, for good, or ill. 

When down and out, don't sit and 
pout, 

Life is too short, at best; 

But make a drive, go in to thrive, 

Work with a will and zest. 

Take up Life's thread and weave 

your web, 
Some fail to act, 'tis true; 
But those, who plan, they understand, 
That they must put it through. 

In every age of life is staged 
A moving picture show. 
Some play it well, some find a hell,* 
So little do we know. 



* To some lives come losses of all sorts, poverty, 
heavy burdens, severe trials, illness, betrayal, deep sor- 
row, etc. This is hell on earth. We recognize no other 
hell. 

178 



158 Love is Supreme 

It's better to have loved and lost, 
Than never to have loved at all. 
It's better to bemoan your loss, 
Than have no love joys to recall. 

Some birds, that mate, then, soon 
parted, 

Will never sing again, but die. 

The pangs of the broken hearted, 

Ah, those who feel, can not deny ! 

But love is earnest, love is deep, 
It moulds the life of flesh and blood, 
It cheers the soul, or makes us weep, 
It forces life to high tide's flood; 

And all we feel and all we do, 

When full orbed love knocks at our 
door, 

We welcome, as glad tidings new; 

And tread with joy the floral floor — 

Where bees get honey, birds do sing, 
For earth is heaven, life is spring, 
When Love puts on the wedding ring; 
And marriage doth its Eden bring. 
179 



159 



The White Cross 



Out of the battle gore, 
There came a cross of white; 
And this same cross, it bore 
Man-form of radiant light. 

Though dead, it came to life, 
Its gaze was far away. 
He said — enough of strife, 
It's time all men should pray. 

I live and always live, 

I stand for peace on earth, 

It's love, not hate, I give, 

Oh man, how blind from birth ! 

In war we crucify 
The best, that life can give. 
Hear the dead millions cry — 
Enough of carnage, live! — 

Not like mad dogs, that bite, 
With hatred in your heart ; 
But like men, doing right, 
For love of truth and art. 

"Peace on earth," I bring, 
That is the light I shed. 
Let men rejoice and sing — 
My cross is white, not red. 

180 



"Good will to men," I bring, 
With love and reason crowned. 
Oh brothers, why not sing, 
And cease to hate and pound? 

"I came to save the lost," 
To give you truth and light, 
To lead the way across 
The darkness of the night. 

War rules, by force of arms, 
It crushes with its blows, 
It kills and spreads alarm, 
It wrecks where'er it goes. 

Force must be met by force, 
That is the war of men; 
And war will end, of course, 
When justice comes again. 

"Light of the World," gone out, 
The cross has turned to red, 
War has turned men about, 
The Son of God is dead; 

And peace can never be, 
Until the cross glows white, 
Then, through the clouds we see 
Christ, and believe he's right. 

181 



160 



What Does a Frog Say? 

What does a frog say, when he croaks. 
Is it a laugh, is it a joke? 

Mysterious language, it's true, 

Heard in full moon, or night's dark 
hue. 

It may be note of rejoicing, 

Like the cock, that hails the morning; 

And it may be he's lonely, 

And he croaks, for himself only; 

But I guess he's wooing, don't you? 
And wooing is love, love for two. 



161 



Our Lives are Like the Rainbow 

Oh heaven, thou are weeping! 

Yet, through thy tears so bright, 
Is revealed to mortals 

The bow of radiant light. 
Oh bow of matchless beauty! 

Born of water, sun, and light, 
Thy beauty is the richest, 

While the clouds are yet in sight. 

182 



Our life is like the rainbow, 

Full of beauty, light and tears, 
Only we have knowledge, 

And life is full of fears ; 
But our life is the richest, 

Most beautiful and bright, 
When we smile through our tears, 

While the cloud is yet in sight. 



162 The Moon 

The lesser light — the silver moon, 
So far away from earth thy home, 
Stationed alone in heaven's dome, 
We wonder at thy strange cartoon. 

And thou dost come in crescent form, 
And each night show a fuller growth ; 
And with they growth, more light for- 
sooth, 
Until full orbed; but pale by morn. 

And when thou growest to thy full, 
Begin to wane and grow less bright 
Until thy rays are lost in night, 
And all thy reign of splendor null. 

Oh moon, thou dost but typify, 
The coming and the going day, 
The tide, that comes, then ebbs away, 
Unfolding life, that soon must die. 

183 



Yet, lovers seek thy radiant smile, 
In thy enchantment, glow in heart — 
Come nearer, nearer, less apart, 
Until they cease love to beguile. 

Oh moon, kissed by the sun of day, 
If that's the kiss, that makes you 

glow, 
No wonder lovers learn to know, 
That kissing has a warm x-ray. 

But, if there was no shining moon, 
No scenic beauty in pale light, 
Would lovers quit, grow cold at night, 
Or woo and coo, and spoon and. spoon ? 



Mother of Mine 111 

163 Oh mother of mine, I loved you ! 
When on thy breast I fed. 
Thou gavest me such tender care 
Rocking my cradle bed. 

Oh mother of mine, I loved you ! 

When as a child I played ; 
And you took part and cheered my life, 

And daily for me prayed. 



* Mother was 88 years old on the 23d day of June, 
1919. She died on Monday, July 21st, 1919. Her maiden 
name was Catherine Hasbrouck More. John More, 
mother's great grandfather, came to America from 
Scotland. The Deckers came from Holland. 

184 



Oh mother of mine, I loved you ! 

When bumps and trouble came; 
And when the Doctor called me ill, 

Your comfort soothed my pain. 

Oh mother of mine, I loved you! 

When helping with my books, 
Rejoicing, when I won reward, 

If not, those troubled looks. 

And all through life, Oh mother dear ! 

Thou has been true to me — 
In manhood's struggles, when in doubt, 

And in prosperity. 

Oh mother love, that changes not ! 

That watches through the years, 
That cheers and comforts, strengthens 
hope, 

And weeps when we're in tears. 

And when they told me thou wert dead, 
Great sadness filled my heart. 

Mother, that precious life gone out, 
Of which I am a part. 

I had been long regaining health, 
When death knocked at thy door; 

And so I did not see thy bier — 
I saw thy face no more ; 

185 



164 



But that dear face in memory dwells. 

Love has no death, I know; 
And when I too am laid at rest, 

Where thou art, I will go. 

Visionary People. 

A visionary person is one who sees a 
thing before it's born. That is foresight. 
An inventor has foresight, so has a poet; 
but a poet looks both ways — fore and aft, 
and he is not as practical as an inventor, 
but has much more liberty, or license, and 
deals with the unreal, as well as the real; 
while the inventor must make his vision 
realistic and practical, or lose his reputa- 
tion. Visionary people, if they bring to 
earth what they see in the clouds, or else- 
where; and it's good and useful, are bene- 
factors of the human race. We all have 
hindsight, that is common; but foresight 
and vision of a high order, are uncommon; 
and such attainments enrich the world and 
promote prosperity. 

Men are Measured by 
165 Their Vision 

Behold, mountains round about us, 
Great walls, that shut us in, 
Sky-lines we see, but what's beyond? 
Oh scale the peaks, begin ! 

186 



If you're content to pitch your tent 
With walls on every side, 
Then don't lament your confinement, 
If you've not far to ride. 

Don't hamper thought and stay its wings, 
Like birds within the cage. 
Ah liberty is sweeter far 
Then self-imposed bondage! 

By their vision, men are measured. 
If short, they go not far. 
If broad, they have faith and courage, 
And pass obstruction's bar. 

Lofty the vision Moses had — 
Freedom of Israel; 
And Field, Atlantic Ocean spanned 
With lines elec-trical. 

Be bold, fear not, decide with care ! 
Then falter not, but go 
With the vision and decision, 
Courage triumphant know. 



187 



INDEX 

Page No. 

Introduction 1 to 6 

Journey — The Greater and The Lesser 18 to 48 64 

World— The Other, Immortality ,.. 107 to 161 141 

MINOR TOPICS 

Abundance is Found 55 90 

Billy Sunday and The Church 72 to 76 112 

Blossom Days and Wedding Days 161 142 

Bolshevism. 93 136 

Bread Requires Three Lives 51 79 

Conformers and Reformers 50 75 

Death For Life 58 98 

Debts, The Chief Cause of Panics 93 to 96 137 

Drama In The Church 77 to 83 113 

Fashion 18 61 

Faith Cures 58 to 64 99 

Finance 15 57 

Foundations, Ultimate, Do Not Exist 56 91 

Government For the People and By the People 96 to 106 138 

Going it Alone — Joseph, Lincoln and Washington 69 106 

Great and The Near Great 52 82 

Golden Rule Week 85 to 88 119 

Habits 64 to 66 100 

Ignorance, Greatness of Our, We Know and We Don't Know 53 85 

Instinct, Were it not for, We would All be Good 50 77 

Instinct of Man 53 86 

Know Thyself 55 89 

Life 12 43 

Life, Visible and Invisible 54 87 

Life, New On Earth 161 143 

Life, Drama Of 168 149 

Love, Mad 69 to 72 108 

Love, Without Duality, No 48 65 

Love Requires No Instruction 51 81 

Love, Who Can Define It? 69 107 

Light, Influence Of 56 93 

Lincoln, Abraham 48 68 

Laugh and Show Your Skeleton 17 59 

Ladies, Young — Advice to with a Cold 52 83 

League of Nations, The Peace of the World 166 to 168 148 

Miracles, Myths and Mysteries 84 118 

My Visit To The Great War 163 to 166 147 

Modesty 66 to 68 101 

Money 13 48 

Physician Dies, Loss is Great 89 to 91 126 

Persistency 15 56 

Persons— Those Sensitive 169 to 171 151 

Sensitive People 169 151 

Shave, or Be Like A Goat 17 58 



MINOR TOPICS— Continued 



See, We Don't and We Do. . 

Similars and Opposites 

Spirits — Dual, Opposite 

Soul-Mind of God 

Thought and Sleep, Center. . 
Thought Preceeds Creation. . 

Uplift 

Unknown, How to Find 

Visionary People 

World War and The Church. 



THOUGHTS— ORIGINAL, 
TERSELY EXPRESSED, or BRIEFS. 



POETRY 



Choosing 

Dreamland 

Love is Supreme 

Men Are Measured By Their Vision. 

Moon— The 

Mother of Mine 

Our Lives Are Like The Rainbow . . . 

Unspoken Language, The 

What Does A Frog Say? 

When Down And Out 

White Cross, The 



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